There are many myths about marijuana out there today; most of them are being taught by the (US) Government. In this essay I will look at what an anti-pot Government website (theantidrug.com) has to say about weed, and determine through my own experiences what is true and what isn’t. It is my hope to call the Government out on their flat-out lies, and shed some light on the half-truths.
I should give you some background on my experience with marijuana, and drugs in general, to start. I smoke pot whenever I get the chance, which is not everyday. Quite frankly, it would be too expensive for me to smoke on a daily basis. Sometimes I’ll go through a string of a month or so where I constantly smoke pot, and other times I will not get a chance to smoke for an even longer period of time. In other words, I smoke weed whenever I get a chance, and if I could smoke it everyday I would. I am a regular tobacco smoker, 8-10 non-filtered cigarettes a day, and drink only socially. Being that I’m not a very social person, I do not drink very often. I have light beer in my fridge that I only drink when my father comes over, and Jack Daniels in my cabinet that hardly gets touched. I have snorted cocaine once and also dropped liquid LSD once.
With that out of the way, let’s dig in!
Harmless?The problem with looking at this, or any other anti-drug Government website is that they geared towards parents with children and focus mostly on the “effects” on children. I do not advocate young children smoking marijuana. I didn’t first smoke it myself until I was 19 years old. With that said, I see no problem in the average 16 year old smoking pot on occasion.
From theantidrug.com
“Marijuana use can lead to a host of significant health, social, learning, and behavioral problems at a crucial time in a young person's development. Getting high also impairs judgment, which can lead to risky decision making on issues like sex, criminal activity, or riding with someone who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
This is a great example of the Government pulling ideas out of its collective ass. There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that getting high is going to lead to unprotected sex. If someone is going to have unprotected sex while high, they are going to have unprotected sex when they aren’t high. Marijuana, while more potent than when the Woodstock Generation was toking up when they were young, is still not powerful enough to invoke a sexual wildness in a person that isn’t there in the first place. The same goes for crime and riding with someone under the influence; if someone is capable of or willing to commit these acts while high, they would do them while sober.
The fact of the matter is, too much of anything can be bad. I’m sure that anyone who has been through or is currently in high school remembers the stoner sect; the slow-witted, acme-plagued burnouts wearing Grateful Dead t-shirts and not showering for weeks on end. They have smoked too much weed at too young of an age. As for me, I can safely say that at no point while high have I committed a violent crime or engaged in risky sexual behavior. I usually snack and watch South Park (or Simpsons, Family Guy, cartoons of the like).
AddictionFrom theantidrug.com
“Don’t be fooled by popular beliefs. Kids can get hooked on pot. Research shows that marijuana use CAN* lead to addiction. Each year, more kids enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs combined.”
*emphasis mine
This is an example of what I like to call a “half-truth”. Sure, anyone can become addicted to marijuana, just as anyone can get addicted to chocolate, coffee, soda, candy, meat, or anything else you can think of. Some people have addictive personalities, and are looking for anything to get hooked on. I had a roommate at one time who was indeed addicted to marijuana. She would look for any excuse to dip into her boyfriend’s stash, and when said stash was depleted she would comb the floor looking for specs of pot that might have fallen. She, however, is in the minority. Every other pot smoker I’ve encountered does not act that way. When I am not smoking pot there is no chemical reaction that makes me jones for some more, unlike when I haven’t had a cigarette for an extended period of time. There is no conclusive evidence that smoking pot leads to addiction. In fact, a report that was ordered by President Richard Nixon and then destroyed by Nixon stated that marijuana was LESS harmful than tobacco or alcohol (if anyone knows where I can get my hands on a copy of said report, or whether or not there are any copies remaining please let me know).
Gateway DrugA common misnomer about marijuana use is that it will lead to "harder" drugs such as cocaine, heroin, meth, ecstacy, etc. As I stated earlier I have tried coke and LSD, and have not become addicted to them. Coke was nice but not for me, and LSD was cool but not something I would want to take on a regular basis. I'll bet dollars to donuts that most pot smokers do not get hooked on the "harder" stuff. I know I didn't.
EffectsThis website has many examples of how long-term use of how marijuana allegedly effects a person’s memory, attention span, and learning ability. A prime example is quoted below:
“A study of college students has shown that critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning are impaired among people who use marijuana heavily, even after discontinuing its use for at least 24 hours. Researchers compared 65 "heavy users," who had smoked marijuana a median of 29 of the past 30 days, and 64 "light users," who had smoked a median of 1 of the past 30 days. After a closely monitored 19- to 24-hour period of abstinence from marijuana and other illicit drugs and alcohol, the undergraduates were given several standard tests measuring aspects of attention, memory, and learning. Compared to the light users, heavy marijuana users made more errors and had more difficulty sustaining attention, shifting attention to meet the demands of changes in the environment, and in registering, processing, and using information. The findings suggest that the greater impairment among heavy users is likely due to an alteration of brain activity produced by marijuana.”
Pay close attention to the “period of abstinence”. Just like every other example the “period of abstinence” is short. This is done by design, because if this site were to be more truthful they would tell you that the LONG TERM effects of marijuana smoking are damn near non-existent. Another point of contention: everybody is different, has a different DNA structure. Therefore these “studies” cannot be at all accurate whether you use 129 people or 129,000,000 people. Marijuana will affect everybody differently. There are many people who can easily function just fine while high. My own sister, who is a heavy pot user, smokes when she wakes up, goes to work, smokes during her lunch break, smokes when work is over, and she excels at her job as a graphic designer. The webmaster of this very site has worked on this site while high. In other words, these studies are bullshit and you won’t know how marijuana affects you until you smoke it.
CriminalityThe website talks about “criminal behavior”: some instances have already been quoted. The “criminal behavior” that most pot smokers are guilty of is possession and usage of marijuana. Smoking weed is nothing more than a moral crime. The only person you may hurt is yourself, despite what the government sponsored commercials which show stoners running over little girls on bikes and decrepit old ladies waiting for their high grandchildren to take them out somewhere may tell you.
Marijuana became illegal in the country because of racism. This is detailed wonderfully in the marijuana episode of the History Channel’s excellent series on illegal drugs called “Hooked”. “We want the Wetbacks out of this country. Those Spics brought marijuana into this country. If we say these Beaners use pot to fuck our precious, virginal white women we can get them out of here”. That should be enough to show anyone how morally wrong these drug laws are.
Then there is the fact that the Government is spending billions upon billions of our tax dollars fighting a war there is no chance of winning. The government has no chance in Hell of ridding this country of marijuana or any other illegal drug. The money spent burning pot plants in South America and throwing otherwise law-abiding people in jail for holding a dimebag could be spent on more worthwhile ventures. Perhaps that is too much to ask of the mental midgets on Capital Hill.
The Final WordSimply put, I do not want the US Government telling what I can or cannot put in my body. If this country is truly free country, I can shoot myself up with gasoline if I wanted to. It’s my body, and I should be able to smoke, snort, and shoot what I want to.
As for the children, they shouldn’t have the same rights that I do. However, it should be up to PARENTS to tell them about drugs such as marijuana, not the fucking Government.
Next time: Getting racist with the Census.