Weed has always been a controversial topic. It is looked down upon as a gateway drug, a drug used by delinquents and thugs, and something that can eventually ruin a person's life if used.

I’m originally from a small farm town in Ohio. There, weed was frowned upon much more so than anywhere else. If someone got caught with it, it was a huge scandal and they would be talked and gossiped about, it was demonized in health class as something that could destroy your life, and it wasn’t something parents or adults enjoyed talking about with you ever.

Now that I am in Chicago I have been given the opportunity to see weed in a different light. When one walks down the streets of this beautiful city, it is safe to assume that every other person you pass is smoking weed, whether it be medically or recreationally. Here suburban moms smoke it, doctors smoke it, normal adults smoke it, teenagers smoke it, gang members smoke it, college students smoke it, even middle schoolers smoke it, which blows my mind and is slightly concerning.

Everybody is very hush-hush about smoking it due to the illegality of it, but we all know that weed has become heavily rooted in our American culture. It is such a common thing in society that a 15 year old could start selling low grade weed in an urban area, and there would be a huge market for him/her because of the high demand. So why is something that has become prevalent in society demonized in such a huge way?

It makes no sense at this point. There are multiple states that have legalized marijuana, and there weed is freely smoked and entrepreneurs are finding themselves creating new and original businesses to help market it. Yet in other states where it is illegal it is demonized and teenagers and adult are finding themselves sitting in prison for years for merely possessing it or selling it in order to get by.

So why do we demonize this drug and throw people in jail for it when we condone other even more harmful substances such as alcohol? Alcohol is a legal beverage that literally poisons a person when consumed in a large amount. People have found themselves vomiting and blacking out from alcohol, getting their stomachs pumped, becoming violent and harmful, and becoming addicted. It has destroyed families and ruined lives yet there are people demonizing marijuana while at the same time posting Facebook posts about how much they need a glass of wine.

An argument people make is that alcohol is perfectly safe when consumed responsibly, and this is true. Alcohol can be an amazing and delicious thing shared with friends over dinner when consumed in healthy amounts, but it doesn’t change the fact that alcohol has caused more damage and death to our society than weed ever has.

So why is weed being demonized when it is less addictive than alcohol and even less addictive than caffeine due to weed being non-addictive? I believe it is because of the lifestyle that is stereotyped to come with weed. There is no doubt that people who lead a lifestyle of crime, laziness, and delinquency all tend to have something in common: weed. But what people need to realize that their life isn’t the result of smoking weed, it’s from either their own personal choices or being born into a disadvantaged lifestyle. Also, people think that weed causes a person to get caught up in a party culture, but what people need to realize that with party culture alcohol is WAY more prevalent and even if weed and alcohol didn’t exist, people would still party.

The point that I am trying to make is that weed is slowly becoming legal for recreational use, it is used medicinally, it used by a diverse group of people, and it isn’t addictive or necessarily harmful, unless smoked because then it will harm the lungs (but everyone smokes cigarettes and cigars anyways).

We, as a society, need to stop demonizing weed when there are young people sitting in jail for something less harmful than alcohol, while entire states are able to smoke it and legally profit off of it.

Obviously, a person should not be smoking weed if it is illegal in their state because that is breaking the law, but what America needs to realize is that weed is going to be legal in all 50 states eventually and a few decades from now we will look back in time and wonder what the big deal was about weed in the first place.