I don't think it's as simple as legal vs. illegal. If I asked the average person if they would be interested in DXM, they would shun me for entertaining the use of cough syrup.

It all comes down to how we, as a society, view pleasure. I remember seeing a comment on r/drugs about pleasure, and I saved it because it meant a lot to me, and I think it really hit the nail on the head in regards to how people look at drug use.

I am absolutely fascinated by how our society demonizes and tries to control pleasure. Some amount of pleasure is acceptable, BUT only to a certain point. Too much of it is always a bad thing, no matter its origin. Why? Just because.

If you're feeling more than the average, socially acceptable levels of pleasure, say the kind you get from opening a new iPhone box or watching your kids play versus the insane physical euphoria that comes from an MDMA high or orgasm achieved during kinky sex, then that amount of pleasure is unacceptable. It must inherently be part of why the activity you're engaged in to get that pleasure is amoral. Even if you know in every logical part of your brain that it damn sure is OK to feel really good, that whatever you did to get that way is not hurting anyone, that you deserve pleasure because you're a human being, and there's no reason anyone should have victimless pleasure taken away from them... There's still that weird feeling of guilt. Like you haven't earned it, or it's too good to be true, or that you're surely going to pay for it somehow. (Caveat: Some drugs do come with a price, of course, but done properly, LSD and GHB really don't.)

Maybe it has to do with the puritanical roots of Western society, the vestiges of a Christian culture of denial and self-sacrifice--compare this to the cultures that invented the Kama Sutra.

Anyone have any thoughts?