Marijuana

Marijuana

I wrote a piece on why people drink. So I thought that I might as well write a piece on why people smoke pot. Or really why I smoke pot, because I just assume that most people do it for the same reason that I do. I'm sure that there are many reasons to smoke, but here's my attempt at an answer that encompasses the many different reasons.

The reality of life is a hard thing to deal with. Sometimes you look at your life and you weren't where you planned to be at. Things didn't work out with that girl, or I'm working a dead end job, or my grandmother is nearing the end of her mortal existence. These are things that are just hard to take. Some of them you can change, and some of them you can't. But even the things that you can change can sometimes take a lot of time. And what are you supposed to do in the interim? While you're reality becomes more and more difficult to deal with? You change your reality temporarily.

I remember an episode of "South Park" where they did an excellent job of explaining what it is that marijuana really does to you. It makes you okay with doing nothing. Not to say that this is a positive thing, because it is usually better to do something. But sometimes that is just what you need, to be alright with doing nothing.

You come home from a long day at work, customers complaining, bosses getting on your case, your monitor explodes. It can all be a little bit frustrating. And it doesn't stop until you reach the age of retirement (thanks to Bush it'll end up being like 90). So you sit down, smoke a bowl, and suddenly you don't feel frustrated anymore. You sit there content to just watch a little bit of television, read some comic books, and spend sometime in a warped reality.

Now, I make it sound as though pot is merely a coping mechanism, which is not true at all. At least not moreso than anything else. Because as the THC enters your brain causing dopamine to be released ("I'm high as a kite") and that wierd membrane develops that causes you're synapses to fire at a slightly slower rate ("I forget words") all you're doing is finding a way to take your mind off of the worries at hand. The same could be said for people that go to the movies. They sit their for two hours, or three if you like Peter Jackson, and let themselves become enveloped in an alternate reality until the credits roll. They forget about their lives for that time and it is wonderful. And people have all sorts of things that they use to escape reality, just for a small time.

So it comes down to this. Marijuana is just another way of enjoying our short time here on Earth, and also a way of dealing with the times that make existence seem unbearable.