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This is a message to all the parents out there who would allow their children to drink alcohol but would hit the roof if they caught them smoking cannabis.
Now I’m not promoting to minors; of course I hold the view that cannabis should be enjoyed by those above a responsible age, once their brain has had a chance to develop in a natural way. I, unlike most of my friends had my first joint when I was 16, then I didn’t start smoking again (except the odd spliff perhaps twice) until I got to university aged 18 and 3/4s.
Whilst at college when I’d turned 17 I began going out to night clubs pretty much every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This was my way of ‘rebelling’, as before this point my parents had been quite strict so I hadn’t experienced getting off my face and stumbling home whatever time I wanted. I’d regularly drink myself into a stupor, much as most people would when they started the clubbing phase of their life, coming home at three in the morning (seems so early compared to the raving years I enjoyed at uni), passing out and going to college the next day with a killer hangover. I did this pretty much every week, and probably acted a prat more times than I could possibly remember due to being drunk.
Now once I got to university and discovered cannabis, I immediately changed as a person. Changed for the better – I realised how powerful a drug alcohol is, and couldn’t believe that things like cannabis, and even MDMA were considered dangerous and bad when alcohol could be purchased anywhere and everywhere. I began drinking less, until I stopped entirely in favour of smoking cannabis. I’d even go out stoned rather than drinking. I’d still enjoy a drink once in a while, but to this day I treat alcohol with the respect it deserves – I would never go out with the intention of getting so smashed I’d forget the night I’d just spent £70 on.
Cannabis is not on par with alcohol. Nobody who has smoked it can honestly admit that. I accept its not for everybody; I have friends who don’t smoke even though everybody around them is high all day every day. But whoever can honestly criticize cannabis while sipping on a Carling needs to watch The Streets – The Irony of it All.
Now you’ve watched that, you may have an idea about the hypocrisy of classifying cannabis users as criminals whilst accepting alcohol as a part of society.
Nobody has ever died from cannabis – its physically impossible as you’d need to smoke 15 pounds of the stuff in as many minutes.
Alcohol on the other hand – I could go into Tescos right now and buy enough to kill me – a couple of crates would probably do it. Do you not see the irony of all of this?
And I used to think that the Government would not want cannabis legalised because they couldn’t tax it. Now I know that this is not the case – they could actually make enough to sort out a lot of the nations problems and stop budget cuts.
On top of this aside from the recreational side, cannabis is needed as a medicine by thousands of people in the UK who suffer the exact same illnesses that people in other countries would be prescribed it as a medicine for. Do you as a responsible adult, think that they should be denied their medication because our government cannot admit its failures and mistakes?
I am so happy that I use cannabis as my drug, rather than alcohol, which the general public need to start realising is also a drug. A pretty dangerous one at that. The only damage to society that I am causing is the direct result of the Government’s prohibition on cannabis, so I don’t feel that bad about it. The money I may be putting into the hands of organised criminals when I pick up my 8ths every few days could be generating sheds income for the government in taxes. Me, and the 6-or-so million other moderate to regular cannabis smokers in the UK. Think of the use that amount of money could do for the United Kingdom! Instead it all gets filtered away, un-taxed and used by criminals for god-knows-what.
So raise the debate with your parents and others who criticise cannabis, after all information is the key. With the arguments learned from this blog and the likes of Jason Reed and Cure Ukay you should be able to win any argument about the benefits vs. the harms of cannabis. After all, we’re fighting the logical side. Hopefully logic and reason will win over stupidity and tabloid misinformation as we become more forward-thinking as a Nation.
Keep Toking,
Nuff Said
