Funny, it took me only a few seconds of reading. I wondered to myself why he needs the escape.

If you came to that conclusion within a few seconds at the beginning of this article, your diagnostic criteria is basically "uses drugs -> has drug problem". A stopped clock is right twice a day, but is never useful.

The need for escape only really came up later in the story; it was a gradual transition.

The impression of the first uses of drugs was about mind expansion, about the potential of psychoactive drugs to explore neurology.

Yeah, we tell ourselves many things to rationalize our behavior.

Well that's not very charitable. Motivations can change you know.