Hi, I’m Mike. I’m a pot head. (Hi, Mike.) I haven’t touched marijuana in over 30 years, but I have forever been affected by 14 years of abusing this popular substance.
I’m affected in a number of ways. The most obvious effect is the number of brain cells I must have fried by inhaling vast amounts of the toxic smoke into my lungs day after day from 1973 until 1986. Add to that the lethal fumes snorted through my nostrils directly to my brain, and that equals a largely incoherent youth/young adulthood for yours truly.
Secondly, I’m haunted by the subconscious uncertainty of whatever damage I may have suffered. There’s no way to measure what I might have been intellectually and psychologically if I’d spared myself such excessive delirium in my formative years.
Sure, there are the marijuana using masses who deny any harm has come to them, and how they “can handle it”. They defy any notion they’ve been hampered at all in their jobs, relationships, or their thinking.
The scary part is, the culture is buying it. We’re posting articles about specific victims of disease who’ve benefited from carefully prescribed doses of medically administered marijuana. We’ve therefore celebrated it as a reason for legalization across the board. And while we’re at it, it’s time to go ahead and legalize it’s recreational use, too, because it’s “no worse than alcohol”.
Here’s a hard fact. You can take a drink and not get drunk, but you can’t take a toke and not get stoned.
This careless comparison and rationalization is a slippery slope, paralleling the dangers of substance abuse itself. Just like lighter drugs can lead to harder stuff, the more dope we allow into our society, the easier it is to allow the next level of hallucinogen to infiltrate the population.
I consider those who champion marijuana legalization as those who have been smoking it so long they are no longer able to make a rational decision about it.
Seriously, I’m simply making these judgments based on personal experience. I know pot affected my thinking, my attitude, and my ambition. To what extent, I’ll never know. I’ve seen it’s harmful effects on so many others. I can not believe any long term good can be derived from it’s regular, unregulated use. Only harm can come.
I do know how attractive the euphoria of it’s effects can be, so I’m not surprised it’s proponents are riding on the backs of a small percentage of medical beneficiaries to proclaim it’s virtues. Just because it makes the music sound good, does not make it a good lifestyle choice.
Because eventually, the song ends, and you forgot what just played.