[tragblack]

I smoke pot every day, and I happen to be one of the users whos brains have not addled. I do not become overly depressed, although, like meditation, it causes me to look at some aspects of myself that I may not necessarily be comfortable with and must face. It doesn't make me hallucinate (which is an intensly annoying cultural misconception to most regular smokers). I have done shrooms. THAT'S a drug. My god, that was scary. Weed, compared to that is like... a big warm fuzzy hug.

I think that weed affects everyone differently, and everyone's own habits should be ruled by their own personal preferences. I personally can't stand how alcohol makes me feel, and while I smoke the occasional cigarette, it never really keeps me going back to it and I can't really stand how it tastes.

Some say that I am dabbling around in "dangerous territory," and that the only way to stay safe and sane is to just say "no" to everything, and yes, I guess that is true to some degree, but I AM smart enough to know not to do coke or heroin, nor have I had the inclination to. I just want to smoke pot in peace and be left to make my own personal decisions about how I "get high," be it through pot, alcohol, meditation, sex, exercise, poop-sniffing, etc.

Some argue, why do any drug at all?

To which I reply I am only human, and humans, back to the most primal of man, have always taken drugs. We just kind of want to do it, because it's fun, and whether or not it's particularly clean or good for us, it is part of being fleshy and dirty and stinky and alive.

And smoking weed, although harmful in it's own ways, has never killed anyone by itself. (And to anyone out there who will scrape the internet for that one story about that one guy in that one accident who smoked weed before he died, when was the last time you heard about any weed overdoeses or injuries or cancers in the everyday news?)

Hell, I could take a single bottle of aspirin and die right now. Bus might kill me tomorrow. I think eating McDonalds every once in a while puts worse things in my body.

I have lost too many friends simply because they "don't like what I do." Even while it was some of those same friends who smoked with me, they see that their lives are calling for them to go in a new sober direction and they want me to follow suit. (However, it does not seem as if this new, sober and responsible lifestyle has any rules against heavy drinking during the weekend.) In fact, I think the most hurtful thing about smoking weed is the social stigma you get as a "stoner." I do not wish to force my hobby down their throats. I don't want to keep them smoking forever. I don't care what the hell they do. But what I do care about is all the back-talking I have come under, and all these jokes against my intelligence. In conversation, all I have to do is slip up but once in my memory to have some kind of joke made about my brain cells dying in agony.

I know plenty of old stoners who are not crazy/ sick/ slow who have been smoking weed since they were teenagers.

If it affected me badly, I would surely stop, but that day has not come. My face is full and happy. I'm lean and skinny and still eating well. I have regular bowel movements. I have a good level of intelligence and by god, I am a stoner.

By the way, I have asthma. Ironically, it helps me out of an attack just as easily as albuterol does.