So Why Can’t He?
Dear Doctor,
I am sixteen years old and go to (a local) high school.
I smoke pot, and a lot of my friends do too. We can’t see anything wrong with it and don’t think it is such a big deal. Why isn’t it legal?
Smoking Sixteen
Dear Sixteen,
The legality question is beyond both of us.
The real question you are asking has to do with marijuana’s importance in your young life. While I understand passing experimentation and curiosity, regular use of pot has, in my view, serious consequences.
Answer three questions for me. First, why is pot so important to you? There are usually two reasons, both not so hot. There is no doubt you like getting high. It’s fun to be out of yourself and to let things go, to feel free and silly, even giggle hysterically over things that aren’t even funny.
Taken to extreme, this is the root of addiction and why we like doing addictive things when we are feeling great or lousy. It is also the glue that holds your social group together. It gives you something to do.
Have you ever considered what this is saying about the quality of your life? Could you do any better than a kind of social turn on promoted by a weed? Second, what is pot adding to your life?
Chances are, it adds very little. If you continue to smoke with sufficient dedication, you will, indeed, become a classic "burn out". Having a conversation with you will be like visiting with wallpaper.
Your grades will drop, if they haven’t already, and your sense of superiority over being "in" as a pot smoker will be next to humorous, if it were not so sad. Surely there is more to life than consorting with a burning vegetable. (Or possibly becoming one!) Third, what will you miss without it? The answer is: not a blessed thing.
You will, of course, miss sneaking and trying to make your parents and the school look like fools. You will miss being with the contributing, achieving, really alive people. You will miss having more money left from your hard work and be deprived of giving it to a dead end dealer.
Of course, you can always say you don’t really care or simply sigh "whatever".
But you and I know you are just blowing smoke.
Tags: drug use and abuse, marijuana use, school issues, smoking pot, Teenagers
Leave a Comment