Cannabis. Weed. Mary Jane. The Devil’s Lettuce.
Marijuana has acquired plenty of nicknames over the decades. Historically associated with red eyes, creativity, laziness, increased appetite, and a serious case of the giggles, marijuana has experienced quite the public-opinion shift over the last decade alone.
As of 2015, public opinion polls show that about 58% of Americans support legalizing marijuana. In the late 90s, this percentage was only about 25% of the population. Why the big shift in support?
In high school, I can clearly recall being lectured about the dangers of smoking pot by more than just a few adults. “It could be laced with anything.” “Your IQ will drop.” “You’ll never have any motivation again.” “You’ll get fat.”
And who could forget the old wives’ tale of the century: Marijuana is a gateway drug.
As a naïve teenager, the idea of marijuana as a gateway drug made at least some sense to me. You probably try one drug, then you feel like “hey, might as well try ‘em all! Where’s the blow?” But does this really happen?
Studies show that more likely gateways to hard-drug abuse are poverty, poor social environment, association with people who already use hard drugs, and certain mental-illnesses.
Sorry, mom and dad. One puff of the green stuff won’t have you jonesin’ for meth anytime soon.
So why do politicians, educators, and certain media outlets keep telling us that marijuana is a sinister gateway drug that inevitably leads down a path of failure and sadness? Cannabis is currently classified by the DEA as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning that it has no accepted medical value.
Wait, what? Then why are there multiple states that have “medical marijuana” laws? Is “medical” being used here as slang for really good weed, or does the federal government have it all wrong?
Fortunately, there have been rumors floating around that the DEA is planning on moving cannabis to the ranks of morphine and other drugs that have accepted medical benefits. Unfortunately, this means that the federal government still maintains the belief that cannabis is highly addictive, a topic of contention for many pro-marijuana people.
While moving marijuana to the list of Schedule II drugs will ease research efforts designed to uncover the medical benefits of marijuana, some high ranking officials still hold onto their beliefs that marijuana is a useless drug. This is problematic because these are the people writing and voting on laws.
When politicians like Chris Christie rant about the potential dangers of marijuana, I immediately think of the families whose lives have been exorbitantly improved by marijuana’s medicinal qualities, giving their sick children life again. I think of the young girl who used to have hundreds of seizures every day who now has her life back thanks to medical marijuana.
Since I was born in 1995, I have witnessed the public opinion shift of marijuana over the course of my entire life, whether I was conscious of it or not. I can distinctly remember a time when smoking pot was almost exclusively associated with actual hippies and musicians—a time where I fully believed that one puff was all it would take to melt my brain and sap me of all my IQ points.
Now, I live in a time where cannabis is being used for more than just an accessory for a stereotype. Veterans use CBD oil to soothe knee pain. Frank down the street smokes because of his glaucoma. Sick children can spend the day smiling rather than seizing, and cancer patients can enjoy a better quality of life.
Yes, people still smoke it for fun, too.
It’s time we stop calling marijuana a gateway drug. In 2016, we should be able to recognize that there are far worse substances out there in the world for us to potentially put into our bodies (alcohol, anyone?). Studies prove that a majority of people who use/have used marijuana in the past do not go on to use harder substances.
It’s also time that we focus on the real gateways to hard drug abuse. It’s easy to chalk John’s heroin addiction up to the fact that he used to smoke weed every Saturday night back in high school, but did we forget about his family’s ongoing struggle with poverty and his cousin’s own battle with drug abuse? Let’s not blame marijuana for all of John’s problems.
It’s 2016, and right now we know that marijuana can be used to ease the effects of anxiety, PTSD, depression, and other mental illnesses. Chronic pain sufferers can also reap the benefits of medical marijuana through oils, pills, tinctures, and more. If marijuana is reclassified as a Schedule II drug by the DEA, we can conduct even more research on the full benefits the plant can have on the human body.
So let’s stop calling it a gateway drug, okay Governor Christie?
