The Catechism prohibits drug use except on “strictly therapeutic” grounds, but doesn’t give a definition of what constitutes a drug. Is alcohol a drug? Cigarettes?

Not having elucidation in the Catechism, I turn to my favorite author of the moment:

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because…

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    The Sage Alone Is Free

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    Perhaps what we need in this age of connectedness is the willingness to be obscure.

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