All pothead think alike

So I've been on grasscity forums reading a particular thread about realizations that are had after toking up. I literrally laughed out loud at how astoundingly similar the thoughts and ideas floating around the post are. I always bring up the creative aspect of smoking when in arguements but its brushed off by those who haven't smoked as a myth. I've always wondered how much I could have improved myself as a person if I had a tape recorder with me everytime I smoked. The train of thought goes so much more in depth into things it causes a serious increase in epiphanies. I may just start carrying a recorder around so I don't lose that million dollar idea :)

My thoughts on weed and addiction

Being a chronic smoker of weed for about 2 years eventually gets peoples attention whether you like it or not. In my case it was my family. I started smoking in the summer of freshman going into sophomore year, I was with a friend at the time who had been smoking for a little while. He was always trying to get me to join him, I wouldn't say it was peer pressure, it was more just a suggestion to join him in having a good time. Ironically the reason I always gave for not joining was that I had an addictive personality meaning that if I did in fact try it and did like it, I wouldn't be able to stop it. Man I was smart back then hah. But anyway I took my first hit out of a glass gravity bong at a friend of a friends house. To this day I have not seen a nicer gb btw. I was being told I took a big hit but I brushed the comments off having not felt the high yet. I had heard that many people don't get high the first time smoking but boy was that just the oppisite for me. Back then my curfue was mad early so my friend and I had already departed to begin our journey home. Probly 5 minutes after we left the house I looked at my friend and said something along the lines of "I feel weird." The rest of the walk home was great. The next following weekends were even greater. Smoking blunts with 3 other people followed by a short walk to Mcdonalds became the routine. Thinking back I'm pretty lucky my parents didn't see me on these trips because anyone would have known I was blitzed. I couldn't walk straight and did not stop laughing from point a to point b. Those were the days. A year or casual smoking went by and my love for marijuana increased and it showed in my smoking habit. I moved on from L riding everyday after school with friends through smoking blunts with only one other person to smoking bongs with my boys which evolved into smoking bongs with only one other person. Since I've never dropped money for a bong I took the cheap way out by making a gb, which gets me higher than bongs and conserves more weed, and now use that to keep my needs met since my friends have gone to college and I am all alone at community. A end piece of a cable cord and a liter poland spring bottle brings me the same results as my friends $200+ bongs. All of this was to give a little background on my following thoughts. After many, many debates with my parents and many, many encounters with the law, I've had the idea that I am addicted to weed shoved down my throught along with many other things(besides the big ____ of the law) So being the open minded person that marijuana has made me, I considered it. I looked it up and read many articles backed by this research and that research listing off symptoms of marijuana addicts. These include things like increase in tolerance, majority of thoughts and effort put torwards obtaining and using drug, and lack of motivation. I read these studies thinking to myself "Hm, I sure do have some of these symptoms," and went back to research. I went to the above the influence site to find a facts section about each drug. The facts about marijuana adicts were similar to previously stated ones but they also had withdrawel symptoms of an addict, this caught my eye. These, applying to only chronic users, are as follows; irritability, sleeplessness, anxiety, impaired appetite and aggression. They also make sure to give you facts like how those who use marijuana weekly have a better chance at depression later in life along with a similar statistic only with schizophrenia the outcome instead of depression. So I read all of what the researchers and "normal" people had to offer and I'm batting close to a thousand. I have all the symptoms of an adict and suffer all the withdrawel effects when usage is stopped. I know I suffer these withdrawel effects because I haven't smoked in 4 days due to an upcoming drug test. This short break has already breaken my longest sober streak for quite some time and I am literally living these symptoms while this is being written. It's almost 5 AM its safe to say that I am sleepless, my parents have been bugging me about how I'm in a bad mood, depressed and upset and it may be the gallon of water a day I've been drinking to clear out my system but I have not eaten much at all. Off weed for a few days I can honestly from the deepest depths of my heart can say I am not craving weed. I am craving something to do. Thats exactly what it is. If I had a longboard right now I'd go bomb the hill right down the street but I don't I have a tv which I refuse to waste time with anymore and computer(which isnt much better). I'm dying of boredom and that is the ultimate cause for why I actually do smoke. The reason I choose to smoke is because it makes everything better. I understand the harms of what if can do to your body and effects of life it may have, but the positives out weigh the negatives for me. The above influence site talks about how when chronic smokers stop they have little interest in things they used to have interest in which backs their arguement that marijuana leads to lack of motivation. The simple fact is that if you are playing a video game and take a break to smoke a j, you will go back to that video game and have a much better time. When the high comes down, you will get the equal low(taught to me by the addiction class I was required to take by state) so that means you will want to be back to that high to satisfy the craving therefore creating the addiction cycle. My problem with this is that in my eyes its like getting teased to an unfair extent. Getting a taste of greatness only to drop down back into the norm. This branches into the depression factor of it aswell. All of this got me thinking. I don't know the full history of marijuana but I do know hippies used it and many more since have joined them. They faught for peace and whatnot but this is where generalizing begins. Pot users get tagged to this certain type of lifestyle and beliefs, which of course, was a negative one. But I'm here saying, if there has been GENERATIONS with such similar ideas and thougts and beliefs, maybe they've got something? If these people gathered enough similar infromation from marijuana addicts and the counter argument is identical from every single one, which from reading various grasscity forums posts it is very obvous potheads think alike, that maybe all these people defend the drug for a reason. I've come to grips with myself that I tend to want to smoke when things aren't going my way. If somethn goes the wrong way I resort to smoking to get through it, which helps tremendously. Now an outsider reading this would immedietly think this is a large defense for the usage of a drug that I am "addicted" to, but I see it the same as cigerettes smokers see cigerettes(maybe not to the same extent) or how people use advil to cure headaches. Now if I had just added "is there a problem with that?" the common response is "Yes there is a problem with resorting to marijuana to get through troubles." The response would continue stating how it makes you lazy and only giving the dsire to eat snacks untill you fall asleep blah blah blah. And my response to that is, "fuck off for judging me you prick." I smoke a very good amount, besides the health factors it cause no problem in my life. I do chores around the house, schoolwork and I work what for myself is a considerably good amount. My friends all smoke weed generally the same amount and are attending schools like University of Maryland, Drexel, Rowan, Lehigh and the list goes on. The generalizations of smokers applies to first time smokers thats all. It's actually getting quite annoying how our whole life is about adapting and making changes but once society as a whole accepts something it is set in stone, i.e. the generalizations of chronic smokers. I've talked with my friends several times about being addicted to marijuana or not and it always ends the same way. We have no trouble stopping, but the time spent using was 10x better than time not, and if that means I may increase my risk at depresson so be it, but we see it as black and white: We'd rather be high than not high. Now this isn't all the time, I do skip smoking for major events and serious gatherings and such, but I'm tired of all this negative nonsense that floats around the drug with false pretenses. The time has come where pot smokrs are a majority in the country(atleast in my eyes) and we need to help these close minded people to get their facts straight. I apologize about my add but yea I have a lot more to vent about the struggle for weed. And to somewhat close out where I started, I love my parents for dealing with a lot of my mishaps lol.