How becoming a stoner has changed me 🌿

After cannabis was legalized in New York State, nad I bought my first couple of pre-rolls at the advice of bud tenders, I set out to learn all that I could learn about cannabis. That said, thanks to long-standing government prohibitions around the growing cananbis and research into the plant, good science still does not exist, and most of what you read is either pro or anti cannabis advocacy.

I am not a heavy cannabis user, it’s something I like to drag on around a campfire, or a lazy summer day up at camp. Certainly wouldn’t call me a stoner in any of the conventional sort of way, although much of what I think is stoner culture is not actually from smoking the weed but the the kind of people who get enjoyment from smoking pot – and celebrate it openly. Many others, who you might think of cannabis users are much less open about their use of the plant. So in that sense, I guess I’m not strictly a stoner, as my liberal views are not as extreme as some of widely documented stoner’s.

But what smoking pot has done to me is realize how bullshit the pompous laws that are much celebrated and usually arbitrarily enforced against the colored and poor really are. Often laws don’t exist because they actually protect individuals, but because they make some politician or cop feel morally virtuous. Ban pot, save the children from the weed! Or keep those dangerous stoned motorists off the road! I am sure if you look somewhere, you’ll find a tragic story about somebody who done something really dumb after smoking a lot of weed. Or had an outbreak of psychosis. It’s tragic how many people have been deprived of their rights and liberties for smoking an agricultural crop that is pretty damn harmless, even if it does stink. At least the cheap crappy pot.

Not all that long ago, it was common belief that what the government does is right and just, and that you as a citizen had a moral obligation to follow all laws. But the legalization of cannabis in the majority of states is a reminder of how shockingly wrong government can truly be. Maybe we are getting this reinforced every day in the Trump administration which not only is skeptical, if not openly disobeying the law, but also is a constant reminder of how wrong laws are to our society. A law enacts a punshiment for it’s violation, but it’s not a moral statement on right or wrong. Something that long standing prohibitions on pot are just a constant reminder.

I don’t advocate the constant use of cannabis due to health impacts of breathing in smoke of any kind. As my health teacher decades ago said, smoking is no different for your lungs then standing of a smoldering garbage burning barrel. Yum! I mean yucky burnt plastic mixed with have-rotten food! Even if it’s not physically addictive, it is desirable and can become a habit for heavy users to break. I know after that first real stoner vacation how kind of a downer that day back at work was. But I do think pot bans and all criminal penalties associated with marijuana are just a constant reminder of how unjust our society is when it comes to possession of drugs and for that matter firearms too. Government really should be off our backs.