It's funny, because I'm all for freedom and ultimately all of my personal beliefs and ethics point towards me agreeing with the vast amount of people calling for marijuana to be legalised. Yet at the same time I really hope it doesn't happen.First of all, why should it be legalised?
Pot is proven to not be a gateway drug. It is a common misconception that the drug ITSELF is one that numbs the users enjoyment and experience of the high to the point where they then take OTHER, stronger, drugs, like cocaine and heroin. The fact of the matter is that marijuana isn't a gateway drug and it is, in fact, the dealers who are often the gateway.
Smoking pot is known to satisfy well enough, however the dealers that the drug is often acquired through try to lead clients onto stronger, more expensive and damaging drugs. The 'gateway' isn't in the drug itself, but the people who deal it.
What's more, if it WAS legal, dealers wouldn't be needed to get hold of it any more, would they? So technically the gateway to other drugs would be completely dead. If anything, it would help people NOT get addicted to other, far more dangerous, drugs.
Pot isn't lethal and doesn't make people dangerous, either. Well, anything can be lethal and anything can make anyone dangerous, which is why pot isn't either of those things. Alcohol, for instance, can make people a threat to others. And honey can be lethal to those who are allergic to it.
Pot is not known to be overly dangerous and is about as damaging as normal smoking. The idea that it is super lethal comes from the common social agreement that all drugs are really bad for you because they mess with your mind and get you high. Of course, some drugs do cause brain damage. LSD does. Heroin does. They fuck with your mind and make you go a little insane, if not completely mad after long-term use.
But pot is not lethal and, quite simply, it gets you high and that's it. You won't go chewing off someone's face if you take it or dying yourself after two weeks either.
Marijuana is also not addictive. Unlike tobacco, which contains nicotine, the weed itself isn't really that addictive. It's the high that is actually what gets people hooked. The feeling of complete happiness and fulfilment is what makes people stay with dope. If it didn't get people stoned then there wouldn't be anything addictive about it.
Then there's the last reason it should be legalised. And this is really a battle of obvious unfairness.
Alcohol is legal. But weed isn't. Alcohol is addictive. Weed, technically, isn't, but it is at the same time. Both alcohol and weed mentally change the people that take them. Both can be dangerous as alcohol kills the liver as well as causes other health issues while the inhaling of the smoke when taking dope kills your lungs. Basically: they're both as lethal, dangerous and bad as each-other, yet one is legal and the other is not. To make this fair and make sense, either weed should be legalised or alcohol should be banned.
Those are all legit reasons why marijuana should be legal. But at the same time, I resent myself and the whole thing. I resent myself for knowing that it makes sense to legalise it because I really don't want it to actually BE legal.
Why?
Well first of all: the type of people weed attracts.
Pot seems to appeal to a particular kind of person. People with alcohol problems may be nasty, not nice people that are going nowhere with their sad lives, but they can still work. They can still do things. Alcohol may be their sole motivator or the thing they live and rely on, but unlike weed it isn't really a 'culture' or 'way of living'.
Weed seems to appeal to people that have no ambition, that contribute nothing to society. This is my own experience and I know many others who agree with me. In fact, very popular YouTuber 'Woodysgamertag' said this when he spoke about the drug.
A lot of people who take pot are of the mentality that doing the drug is a way of life.
"I don't do anything except chill and smoke weed."
Well, great, I guess, but how about you try contributing to society a bit instead of swallowing up fucking money from the government and wasting everyone's time? People like this anger me, and I know alcoholics can be the same, but I've known people with alcohol problems before, and they've all actually had respectable jobs. Have I ever known a weed smoker to do anything 'respectable' or generally 'give a fuck'? Nope.
I also resent marijuana because it scares me. The drug is already easily available and if it became legal it could easily become as socially acceptable and as used as normal cigarettes. I don't like people who take it and I don't want the people I DO know to take it. And the fact that it could be out there, as easy to get hold of as normal cigarettes scares the crap out of me.
It's worth noting in more detail that I don't like people who do the drug because while I'm all for people doing what they want, people who typically smoke weed just aren't great people. I think former potheads Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the creators of South Park) hit the nail on the head with why they avoid weed and its users at all costs.
According to the two men, pot makes them feel stupid and dumb, and they hate being around people who smoke it because THOSE people are stupid and dumb.
And that's it really. Weed does nothing. It doesn't make everything in your life right. It doesn't make you a nice person. It doesn't do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G productive or positive to you as a person. It just makes you dumb and pretty lame. And it's lame people think it's cool to smoke weed. Not to sound patronising or all 'high and mighty' but remember when smoking cigarettes used to be cool? And it isn't anymore? Yeah? Well that's gonna be weed in 20 years from now and I bet you a lot of the people who did it now will be wondering why the fuck they wasted their time with it.
You might wonder what my personal experience with it is, and I don't really want to comment on that. Just know that I have had experience with it, and it's the most pointless thing I've ever come across. At least gamblers who throw their life and money away are trying to gain something. Weed, on the other hand, is all lose and no gain.
In the end there are clear, technical, reasons why it should be legal. But if you just look at the technical reasons without looking deeper at the emotional and social ones then you're going to find a lot of things that 'technically' should be done differently in todays world.
For instance, is it socially acceptable to threaten someone? No. And you can get punished for it. But if you look at it from a technical standpoint, threatening someone is harmless. A lot of what we deem 'unacceptable' and punishable by law is not actually, technically, 'bad'. We just perceive it that way. And that's when you get into morales and ethics and all that. But let's not do that. I don't want my mind to explode.
It actually made me wonder when I read about what Stone and Parker had said about weed making people stupid. I wondered whether it made people stupid, or if they were ALREADY stupid because they did it. Either way, I don't want weed to be legalised, although I appreciate why, technically, it should be.
Note: This article is about weed legalisation and I did not touch on other drugs. While I may do that separately, I want it to be known that I totally disagree with anyone who claims stronger drugs such as cocaine and heroin should be legal too. I also did not touch on the drugs industry itself and how much of a negative impact that has on the world. However while I appreciate it is a big factor in why weed should not be legal, I wanted this article to focus mainly on the more relatable 'social' reasons. It's a no brainer that the drugs industry is a criminal one that contributes nothing positive to the world we live in. As with everything, it is a money and greed fueled business run by selfish people whose only intent is that of making themselves richer.
What do you think about drugs and should they be legalised? Comment below!
