Stop stigmatizing illegal drug users > Just because a drug is legal doesn't make it any better Katie Czenczek Staff Writer tis hypocritical to stigmatize illegal drug use, and yet be completely fine with alcohol and tobacco. First off, alcohol has recently scored highest in the category of harmful substances in a UK study conducted by David Nutt and others in the Lancet. It beat out heroin, crack cocaine, meth, and a flurry of other illegal drugs. This study accounted for many different factors, including dependency, harmfulness to users, and harmfulness to others. Tobacco was wedged in just below cocaine in harm to users. Noticeably, mushrooms, LSD, and ecstasy all scored near the bottom. Why, then, is alcohol a completely acceptable substance to use, while illegal drugs are not? If it’s more dangerous, why do we have half-time show ads promoting it on national television? I’m not saying that everyone should throw tomatoes at people drinking beer, or should start dropping acid at music festivals. Rather, I think we need to start looking at drug use a little differently. The link between childhood trauma and drug addiction has already Greg Waldock Staff Writer hen Hello Games announced No Man’s Sky at the 2013 VGX Awards, they unintentionally started a hype train that would derail in spectacular fashion when the game was finally released three years later. The marketing promised—or suggested the promise— of piracy, adventuring, near-infinite exploration, multiplayer mode, and a deep mythos. What players ended up with was a $60 random terrain generator that crashed every half hour and had none of the features they were most excited about. The resulting backlash was one of the loudest and most vitriolic for an indie game. After slinking into the shadows to avoid the trolls and potential lawsuits, however, Hello Games been well established. According to an article posted on dualdiagnosis. org, “two-thirds of all addicts [have] previously experienced some type of physical or sexual trauma during childhood.” This link is important because the conversations surrounding addiction rarely address why people turn to drugs in the first place. Drugs can be used to dull pain, so why are we focused on treating drug use instead of — stepped up and turned No Man's Sky into something almost legitimately good. Much of the initial hype around the game was around its procedural generation and player freedom. The first trailers showed diverse and colorful worlds with majestic creatures and towering trees as the player dodged space pirates and engaged in colossal space battles. The actual worldbuilds ended up looking incredibly generic with a small number of art assets, and players quickly found out that aerial dogfights and space battles didn’t even exist in the scope of the game. Given the level of disappointment, it is no surprise that would-be fans hyperbolized the disaster of the release. It gave Hello Games and its charismatic leader, Sean Murray, bad reputations that stuck in the gaming community. After nearly two years of live development, though, Image via GenPsych.com the reasons why someone uses drugs? Addiction is still a prickly topic for people. It’s incredibly hard for addicts to come forward and get help, or for those who've recovered to speak out about it. When you have people like the Marpole protestors claiming that homeless people are dangerous because drugs will be brought into the community, you do more harm than good. Interventionism has been proven not to work for a ee I think it’s safe to say No Man’s Sky has done an about-face after the release of three massive free updates, and a fourth on the way. The team put in the effort despite a barrage of online hate, and they deserve the credit for it. After three months of corporate silence following their disastrous release, Hello Games announced the start of the Foundation Update. This overhaul added base-building, space freighters, new game modes, and a ton of new art assets. A few months later the Pathfinder Update launched, adding vehicle creation, spaceship variations, and a large graphical improvement. The third update released a year after No Man’s Sky launched, and was the largest to date. It introduced an entirely new story, large-scale space battles, interstellar teleportation portals, and a ton of UI and quality-of-life improvements. All these long time and people need support when struggling with addiction. When people condemn drug users, they're missing the whole picture. Yes, drugs are bad for your health, but the people that use them are not immoral monsters. In no way are drug users any worse than anyone else. Yet drug users are heavily stigmatized for powerful addictions that are difficult to control. Overall, the crux of this issue is connected to the legality of certain substances. Why can’t all drugs be decriminalized? That way, drug use can be regulated, and the government can even make some money rather than wasting funds by arresting drug users. It could help with stigmatization and would also, ideally, be safer for people to consume. It wasn’t that long ago that the Prohibition was in full swing, which made drinking alcohol illegal. We changed those laws when they proved ineffective. Therefore, it’s possible for these laws to be amended when they’re obviously not working. There is something to be said about a society that actively stigmatizes those who have often suffered the most. That is why I think there needs to bea shift in how we view drugs and the people who use them. 7 Image via VG247.com were free, and all of them were developed by a tiny indie company in England in less than a year. That would be an impressive feat for a triple-A developer— it’s almost herculean for these guys. In the end, it was worth the effort. Players have been drawn slowly back into No Man’s Sky. Excitement for the game is rising, partly due to the updates and to its now-reduced cost, and people have good reason to be optimistic. It’s far from what it was promised to be, but it went from having the entertainment value of a mid-2000s flash game to a fully-fledged title with a lot to enjoy. It’s an incredibly fun experience now, and best enjoyed while mindlessly zoned out listening to a podcast. If you have a long-forgotten copy or can find it for cheap, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least give it a chance.