the world’s going to pot

This will probably be an unpopular post. No…I’m not going to diss the holy grails of coffee or cell phones—though I could.

Nope. Worse. The sacred “herb,” marijuana.

Six years ago, a dinner guest asked my 18-year-old son why most people his age don’t experience activism like we did in the 60s & 70s. In a somewhat judgy tone he asked, “What happened to you?” meaning Dario’s generation. I didn’t speak at the time but I suspected it had a lot to do with the explosion of hella-potent weed use (and the decline of psychedelic use). The former lulls you to non-perturbed non-action.

As a counselor of 35+ years, I can tell you that there’s a substantial growth in the use of weed and the negative effects it has on people’s lives whether you’re the one doing it or on the other end of someone else doing it. The U.S. consumes three times what the rest of the world uses and in a June 2012 CDC study, pot surpassed tobacco in popularity with teenagers. Indeed, when they say, “Let’s go smoke,” they mean weed.

We all know potheads who talk big but do little, ingest “cheetos and goldfish” and have a jolly, if lethargic, take on life. Then there’s the other: anxiety ridden souls, emotionally removed, in perpetual adolescence, avoid sociability unless with pot-smoking friends, unreliable, creatively stunted, must smoke to do their “horrible job,” are moody and restless if they temporarily refrain and—in the pot-rocky-relationship-realm—will usually choose weed over their wife.

Before I go on, I’m adamant for legalization of said “herb’ and I’m nauseated that U.S. prisons are crowded with non-violent users or sellers of weed—not talking Cartel here. I mean, potheads may not be exactly productive but geez they surely aren’t dangerous. I’m also not discussing the casual weed smoker or anyone using it for medical reasons.

However, I doubt that all those males [National Survey of Drug Use and Health found that adult cannabis ‘abusers’ are 74% male] in their 20s and 30s who’ve gotten doctors to sign off for their Medical Marijuana cards because they “suffer” from debilitating pain, depression, nausea or other relatively benign conditions are truth-telling.

And I don’t want to hear about how natural it all is. Huh?! I know people who’ve grown for 25+ years and they’d laugh in your face. The highest weed sample ever tested between 1975 and 2009 had 33.12% THC (domestic), 37.20% THC (non-domestic). The average potency of all marijuana in the U.S., according to the UMPMC’s Dec. 2008 – Mar. 2009 quarterly report, was 8.52% but potency continues to surge. Reality check: the national average THC content in 1978 was 1.37%! That’s when it was natural, people.

Now, there’re all sorts of ways to get your THC hit if you don’t feel like smoking a joint (approx 5 mg THC): cookies, brownies, fudge, pasta sauce, suckers, caramels, animal crackers, ice cream… Here’s the THC content on just two ‘edibles’: soda—120 mg, chocolate truffles—300 mg!! Who could emotionally connect or otherwise function with that dosage?

Why bother to wake and bake? Just stay asleep.