In search of the perfect high

Back in high school it was a big deal if you were caught smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer or making out at a school function.  Then in university partying mean copious amounts of alcohol and many hung-over mornings.  The dawn of the millennium brought with it a whole new chemical cocktail with which to escape reality and keep going for 2-3 days straight…pills in various shapes and sizes. 

These days socializing with friends at a club means frequent visits to the toilet or other private sanctuary where one can rack up and snort up.  The prevalence and use of drugs these days is amazingly widespread and commonplace.

While the timings of these events may vary for each of us, and the fact that each of these stimuli has been around for a while now, I am sure the progression from one to another has been similar.  It leads me to wonder then where we are heading ?  

In a few years are we going to wire our brains to some kind of machine which will neurologically stimulate our pleasure centers’ in order that we may experience the ultimate high ?  Or is that too anti-social ?  Will the twisted creators of these stimulants simply create different cocktails for us to ingest ?

Where is the grass greenest ?

Why is that whenever I come down to Sri-Lanka I meet people who are in envy of the fact that I live in Australia, and express to me their desires to want to migrate there when all I want to do is find a way to spend more time in Sri-Lanka ?
I could understand it if these people were part of the underprivileged in Sri-Lankan society who don’t have the opportunities which are available to everyone in the western world, but these people live in Colombo 7 with a nice car(s), servants and basically nothing to worry about… apart of course from the odd bomb which has been going off in Colombo recently.
When I probe further I find that their want to live in a western society stems from their desires for independence and freedom to do whatever they want without half the city of Colombo knowing about it. While gossiping has its drawbacks, part of the attraction of Colombo is being part of a huge extended family, and a sense of belonging which you certainly don’t get in a big city like Melbourne.
I guess the extent of these desires depends on whether you are male or female and on how much importance your family places on what other people think, but to me living in Sri-Lanka far outweighs life in Melbourne. The pace of life is not so hectic, you don’t have to drive 30 minutes to catch up with a friend for a coffee, people seem to have time to just hang out (maybe because their parents take care of all life’s chores) and to me it is a city which really grows on you and after a while no matter where you have come from you just belong there. I would be interested to hear about other peoples’ experiences and thoughts on this topic.