I will begin this series on drugs in American society with a brief discussion of sedatives. There are 2 ways sedatives are used, One is somewhat legitimate; one is a really bad idea.
There are occasions when, for any of a variety of reasons, folks just can't get to sleep and a doctor may prescribe a sedative. Used on a short term or very infrequently, they are okay. Not great, because, no matter what those nice commercials you see on TV tell you, you actually do not wake up refreshed. Sedatives disrupt normal sleep patterns and while some sleep is better than none, you will not feel all bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning. But, here and there, they are better than no sleep at all. If you are a true insomniac, try to go to a sleep clinic and find out what the real problem is. Long term use of sedatives is a bad idea.
There is another use for these drugs and that is what we now euphemistically call 'recreational.' In other words, to bombed out of your head. Now, a sane person might ask, 'what kind of fun is it to take a pill and go to sleep?' and the answer is, 'none.' But, what if you do not go to sleep? What if you stay up? Then, you find yourself drunk out of your mind, sort of like drinking a lot of whiskey really really fast. You stagger and slur your speech and generally make an ass of yourself, just like any drunk. The thing is, when drinking, and you start feeling the effects, you can stop when you think you are going too far. Take 2 or 3 sleeping pills and you have no option - you are going to get wasted, and they hit you all at once.
I believe the first sedatives were Chloral Hydrate and phenobarbital and both were unpleasant. In my day, we had barbiturates. Folks I knew liked them because they could get drunk without the alcohol hangover. Well, yes, but they did produce a hangover of their own, a dull, half dead feeling the next morning. They were also quite addictive and I am told that barbiturate withdrawal is an especially unpleasant experience.
Then, they pretty much disappeared and Quaaludes showed up. They were a little different. They were called a hypnotic and, instead of knocking you out, they put you in a trance like state and you could drift off if you laid down, or stay up enjoy a sort of floating feeling, or so some said. I hated them; for some reason, they just made me feel aggressively hostile and grouchy. They were of course said to be non-addictive and of course they were actually very addictive, so they disappeared and were replaced by Placydyl, which was about the same thing in a jelly capsule. The only difference I ever found is that they left a horrible taste in your mouth the next day. Both produced the same dull hangover and both have, blessedly, disappeared.
Now we have drugs like Ambien, which I have never taken, but, from what I hear, its about the same. My advice? Avoid sedatives unless prescribed by a doctor and then only take them when absolutely necessary and even then, think twice.
Why do folks want to get that wasted? Ah, there is the question and I know no one who has ever answered that satisfactorily. I am going to give it a shot at the end of this series, but, I can't promise that I can do any better than anyone else. However, we have a ways to go first and next time I will discuss the polar opposite of today's subject. I will visit the lively and dangerous world of stimulants
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