Opposing recreational marijuana use these days is kind of like saying that you support any specific politician. People are going to get mad at you. People are going to cheer you. Most importantly, people are going to react to you in some serious way.
Recreational marijuana use is growing. People liken it to cigarettes or alcohol. Some people even compare it to drinking coffee in the morning. I disagree. I see marijuana legalization as a pretty serious thing, and I don’t think we’re at a point as a society where I can support it. Why? Let’s find out.
Party Time
Woo! Party time! Time to get all screwed up and wrecked and all that fun stuff, right? Nah. It was never for me. I don’t even drink. I don’t see any point in getting inebriated to have fun. You might, but you’re not writing the article here. I am.
Ultimately I feel that the idea that you have to get high to have fun is pretty depressing. Fun to me isn’t sitting in a corner and giggling, watching movies about getting high while also getting high. If you have to get high to hang out and enjoy yourself, I actually get kind of worried that there’s something bigger going on.
Marijuana may or may not have the disparaging elements of other drugs. There’s a ton of debate out there on that and I’m not here to scream about weed research. That’s a different part of the article. The point still remains that there is some level of dependency there if you feel you just can’t have fun without getting high, or that it’s become such an intricate part of the experience.
Recreational Vehicles
We already have a major problem with people driving drunk. Road rage can be exacerbated by high stress caused from having too much caffeine in your system. Let’s not even think about what people who are suffering nicotine withdrawal are gritting their teeth about.
Yes, having to take some long drive from the middle of nowhere can suck but that doesn’t mean that you need to be under the influence of anything while you’re doing it. Whether you’re for or against recreational marijuana legalization, you have to admit that it’s likely we’ll see more instances of people driving high if legalization does go through.
We can’t trust people with the drugs we already allow in our system. Things that have been legalized for a very long time cannot be controlled to a point that people can travel safely in their own vehicles because others can’t respect laws. Why add another substance to the list? There are studies that have shown an increase in marijuana DUIs in legalized states. ( https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/21/auto-crashes-are-on-the-rise-in-marijuana-states.html )
If people could enjoy their party time responsibly, I think I’d be won over to the other side quite a lot easier. It’s very clear that they can’t, and adding another substance is something I can’t get on board with.
Medical Needs
I realize this is an article about recreational use, but these two subjects typically go hand in hand. There are a lot of people that are anti-recreational and anti-medical usage. I’m not one of those.
If medical marijuana can help a patient in any possible way, I’m all for it. That said, there was certainly a time when I wasn’t. I believed that it was better to deal with proven medical compounds rather than marijuana or any other sort of herbal remedies. When you get down to it, that is what medical marijuana is- an herbal remedy, for all it actually works.
There have been too many studies that have come back with evidence showing us that medical marijuana is absolutely something worth having. It stops seizures, ceases pain, and does so many other things that I could spend the rest of this article simply making a list.
However, I feel the gap between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana is the size of the Grand Canyon. For me, it’s the same as taking Oxycontin on a recreational basis. I can’t support that, and I can’t support recreational marijuana legalization for the same reasoning. I also realize that a great number of you are shaking your heads at the comparison of marijuana to Oxycontin. I realize they aren’t the same strength, but both can make you incapable of making good decisions.
Again, it all really comes down to a sense of dread. If people already have so many issues with the substances we have on the market today, we just do not need another added to the mix.
420 Negative There Good Buddy
I know, I know. I’m ruining your buzz and I’m totally a downer. I kind of like being a “downer”, though I call it realism. The world is a mess right now, but I like seeing everyone trying to fix it. If nothing else, at least we can come together on that.
I feel like it’s fair to pop in here what would change my mind, too. So what would change my mind on this subject? What could possibly switch me over to being a proponent for recreational marijuana legalization?
If, at some point in the future, we see an incredibly steep decline with other DUIs I might consider it. As a whole, I feel like our population needs to step up before we legalize recreational marijuana. That’s right, I said before! I’m well aware that I’ll probably see marijuana legalization of all types before I’m too old to type up articles like this anymore. I know it’s coming. I don’t think it’s a particularly worthy hill for me to die on.
Why? Because I’m pretty progressive when you look at my political spectrum and a lot of progressive political candidates tend to support marijuana legalization. If I have to pay for a world set up the way I want to see it set up with legalized recreational marijuana, so be it. I’d just rather have my cake and eat it too.
– Jennifer Doakes
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