Crap.
I was one for a bit. I remember being terrified to quit (which I did five years ago) because I thought I needed weed to be creative - to write, to write songs, to play a better guitar, to be more "edgy" and "wacky" with the ads I wrote, etc...

However, once I quit, I found myself to be more of the above than I had while doing it - except for the "edgy" and "wacky" part, I hope to never refer to myself the same as some clients do. If I ever do, I'll start smoking weed again.

More energy, more drive, more self-editing, more creativity.
Less "Duuuh, what was I saying, man?"

Pot head inevitably leads to a Crap head.

'Bout the time I was 20, 21 or so, I came to the conclusion that smoking pot wasn't "cute" anymore and my mind was probably as expanded as it was going to get. Anymore, my lady and I use it as the occasional *ahem* sexual enhancer, and that's really about it.

I love weed. I smoke quite a bit of it, but I've been lucky in that it's never given me any of the usually associated problems - paranoia, anxiety, lethargy (I've always been a lazy shit), etc.

"Pot head inevitably leads to a Crap head."

This is a CRAP statement. There's nothing inevitable about it.

And weed can definitely improve an otherwise irrevocably shitty day.

Pot culture is crap.

If the idiots behind the legalization-push would realize that they're their own worst enemies then things might actually "happen".

I think "straight" society is really afraid of their white kids growing dreadlocks more than the pot-smoking. I can't stand it either.

The actual pot itself though: NC.

Probably best taken orally.

I started getting high when I was 13, and when I finally gave it up--at 29--I had been pretty much an everyday pot smoker for probably five or six years. It never interfered appreciably with my job, and I think that's one of the insidious things about it--unlike many other substances, pot is something you can do a lot of and seemingly remain functional. This leads a lot of people to rationalize its continued use while ignoring its more subtle effects on their emotional and psychological lives.

I quit for two primary reasons. Firstly, I was in my first major relationship after having been divorced for about a year, and while I loved this woman and we were very compatible, there was just so far I was willing to go in the relationship. This I attributed to the weed, though certainly other factors may have been involved. It's well-documented, though, that marijuana is an emotional inhibitor; that's why we smoke it--because it can make an otherwise shitty day seem bearable. I think smoking pot severely diminished my self-awareness and my capacity to know and understand what I wanted and needed out of a relationship. I also think that having weed (or any other recreational drug) as an escape hatch when things get too rough prevents one from cultivating healthy, meaningful ways with which to combat the stress and messiness of living.

Secondly, I quit smoking pot to rededicate myself to The Muse. Lots of people get high to "unlock their creativity," and I'll admit that when I was in graduate school I was bombarded with so many new ideas and viewpoints that at times it became intellectually crippling, hard to write even. Smoking pot seemed to allow me to shut out those warring ideas in order to create in the intuitive manner I was accustomed to. This is maybe the one area that I'll allow that marijuana has proven useful to me--well, that and the way it can make one more body-conscious during sex--but I think that there are healthy, natural ways to achieve these states without chemical inducement. It just takes more patience than most of us seem willing to spend.

In the years after grad school, however, pot had long since ceased aiding me in my creative endeavors. Of course, getting high made me aware of all kinds of trippy observations (and paranoid delusions) I might otherwise not have noted, but while I wrote tons of stuff, I couldn't bring any of it to fruition, and my inability to finish anything was, in my opinion, related to my marijuana intake.

I developed this theory that consciousness can be seen as a kind of fabric. Getting high might stretch that fabric and expose intriguing peripheral things, perhaps broadening one's perspective a bit, but what you gain in breadth, you sacrifice in depth*--hence my inability to bear down on the poems and hammer them into finished form. And both poetry and human relationships--really anything worth doing-- are all about depth to me. Reefer, as I see it, is the enemy of depth. And because being a great writer and having a healthy relationship with a woman are the two most important things in the world to me, giving up pot (and everything else) to help me better succeed in those endeavors was one of the easiest decisions I ever made.

Being a pothead is crap, y'all.


*I'm fully aware that it sounds like I was high when I wrote this.

It's off and on for me. It's nice to be without it after I've had it for a while, and vice versa. I don't smoke pot socially anymore because it just shuts me up. I do like to smoke and play guitar. I've never been good at having some around for the odd occasion when I feel like it. If I've got it, it goes.

Like has already been said though, I have seen regular smokers turn into completely undealable-with fuck-ups. I would hate to have to rely on it. I suppose many years ago I was a pot head for a long time, but that's a different world.

Being a pot head is crap.

Incidentally, there is a severe country-wide drought on at the moment. Hash in this town is like rocking horse shit and has been for weeks now. Anyone feeling charitable, PM me.

Crap, WF 42.

Many of the people that go to school where I currently go are "dumb stoner" types. Many of those people were not into smoking pot until they got here, so they might be even more annoying in their newfound dumbness. Some people here though, they can smoke the pot regularly (pothead) and function in exciting or unexpected (good) ways. I have been a "pothead" (smoke every day) for three or four years now, and I definitely see where it loses its luster. I can write code when I'm high, but if I do, I have to be normal when I debug (and I have to debug!), or I can write code when I'm not high, and debug when I'm high (which usually means the program has no bugs and I can sit on the couch).

The anxiety thing blows. I lose my sharp edge (you know, where I have a witty retort for everything everyone says), but watching movies is way better.

There is a type of people that can keep it real and smoke all the time, remaining intelligent and engaging. From my experiences, a majority of the people who are pot heads are not this type of person.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:--but I think that there are healthy, natural ways to achieve these states without chemical inducement. It just takes more patience than most of us seem willing to spend.

Amen to that. And everything else you said.

I have never tried it.

I don't much mind being around the people doing it, but the smell is repulsive. Much worse than tobacco.

Be your own pot.