Does anybody still just like to get high? I remember growing up in the 80s and 90s. Everyone I knew it seems got high. All of my parent’s friends were potheads or hippies. These people just like the people today all had jobs, families, and great lives.
We always had friends and family over for barbecues and weekend jams where my father’s band would perform. Sometimes friends of friends and random strangers would end up right alongside the band playing. Stories were shared as frequently as the joints that were being passed around.
The parties I remember are very different than the cannabis functions of today. Don’t get me wrong, I still have some old school friends that make me feel like family every time I see them. Traveling from one side of the United States to the other and experiencing the viewpoints and stigmas each area has about cannabis has opened my eyes considerably.
For many people, this is a budding industry with vast opportunities to cultivate future generational wealth. For some, it’s a quick way to make some quick cash. For others though, what people are calling an industry was and is nothing more than a way of life to them.
These are people that are cultured when it comes to cannabis.
Most of us wouldn’t even call it cannabis if not for today’s “everybody has a viewpoint on everything.” Everyone has to be so politically correct when speaking in public or they come under the scrutiny of countless social media attacks and on sight experts. Everybody seems to know the right way for everything.
To many of us, it’s still “pot”. “Weed”, “ganja”, “herb”- these are the names I grew up with. We weren’t cannabis consumers or a unique user group. We were people. The War on Drugs has been going on since I can remember.
The Lies You Despise When You Love to Get High
In the 80s when I was a young boy, I can vividly remember the War on Drugs campaign that was all over the media being supported by Ronald and Nancy Reagan. I remember laughing at the reports of one marijuana cigarette doing as much damage as being on Bikini Island during an atomic blast. I guess I learned early in life that most of the people in power are full of shit.
The War on Drugs has continued in particularly as a war on cannabis. I mean you can get in more trouble for a few ounces of pot than you can for the same equivalence and cocaine or heroin. Why is it that pot is a forbidden crop? Is it because we can build so many things with it? Perhaps it’s because it’s such powerful medicine. Or, it could be because of the unity it brings to people. Who’s to say really?
With cannabis legalization has come an onslaught of newcomers and new viewpoints. Cannabis is a medicine, and all consumers are medical consumers, there’s no such thing as recreational or retail cannabis.
This cannabinoid does this. This cannabinoid does that. Science is itemizing cannabis like the IRS does tax deductions and audits. I fear one of the biggest things being lost about the cannabis culture is the sense of unity and the joy that comes from sharing with someone else.
Most everyone who likes to get high, or let’s say “medicate”, does so with someone else. Why? Because it’s more enjoyable that way. I personally don’t like to smoke alone. I smoke more when I’m with friends. The feelings that come from sharing weed and stories cannot be put into any form of a pill.
The Not-So-Smart Smart People
When you isolate specific compounds, you’re also missing the entourage effect. When you take the sun and soil away from the plant and produce it in synthetic environments indoors, you also take away from it something else. Cannabis should not be treated as mass crops but rather small craft batches.
This would allow for a much higher quality cannabis than what we’re seeing on the legal market today. I’ve smoked a lot of legal weed, and honestly, I don’t know about you but I haven’t been impressed too often.
Isn’t it okay to like cartoons and laser lights still? What about wizards, wolves, and dragons? These are all things I’ve always loved. There are also things that many other people I know who love the plant as much as I do love. It seems when somebody talks about getting high people get a little uncomfortable. It’s as if we all have to be medicating if we’re just trying to get high.
Dam the MAN, I fear they may have discovered how to destroy cannabis (give it to the people).
Other than me, is there anyone out there who still just likes to get high?
Article courtesy of Expert Joints. Written by JamesP from CannaLance (Canna-Lance.com, @CannaLance, @CannaLancer710)