Just Say No Kids

Drug abuse resistance education is the way to go to live in a happy nation!

Ignore that. It's part of a DARE rap I made in 5th grade for our Dare Jamboree. Cause I'm cool like that. It's the only line I remember...

Anyway, I was reminded of it today during an extremely heated drug discussion in class. Extremely heated. This class stayed perfectly silent (except for one obnoxious girl) through discussions on health care, education, crime, poverty, even sex. But somebody brings up their weed, and people get freakin defensive! I didn't realize exactly how many of my college classmates were high advocates (pun intended) of legalizing weed.

But amidst the screaming and carrying on, my professor was saying something that had always floated around in the back of my mind.

There's this part of the stoner culture (at least the parts of it that I've been in contact with) that is all defiant and thinks that when they light a joint, they're flipping off the government. But the reality of it is, they're not. The government makes a crap load of money off of drug arrests, especially weed. It's far more than they'd ever make by legalizing it and taxing it. I think the figure was 600 dollars a second. A second! So everytime they light up, they're just playing into the government's plan. Feeding the system they think they're defeating. The government has them right where they want them, with a false sense of security and pretty darn complacent in their altered state. (Another fun fact: money procured from drug busts funds public schools. Lord knows public schools need the cash!)

So, that said, most of the class wasn't really understanding her point and she was getting pretty exasperated. It was probably due to the fact that they've already killed all their brain cells...
The main thing they kept repeating was "it's a personal choice!"

And yes, it is a personal choice and I'm all for personal freedom. But this does not mean that actions do not have consequences. Every time you do something, it effects something, someone, somewhere else. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The guy you buy your pot from... where is that money going? What are you funding? What's that pot laced with and what's that doing to your system? What irresponsible behavior are you going to engage in while high?

They all think that just sitting in their rooms, high and happy, is perfectly safe. Maybe it is. But do you tell all you family and friends to leave you alone for a few hours since you'll be out of commission? What if somebody calls and needs you? There's no way you're capable of helping. That's not a far-fetched situation.

Our culture is so self-centered, under the guise of "personal choice." You have to make responsible personal choices. I can respect somebody who personally chooses to smoke weed, that's fine, but only if they're willing to accept the fact that it does have consequences and are willing to deal with them.

Personally, I choose not to engage in such behavior because it's not worth what I stand to lose. I have a spotless record; I'm squeaky clean. Why risk throwing in a drug bust? My parents trust me completely because I've never given them a reason not to. Why throw that away for a few hours of artificial happiness?

Besides, I like being in control of myself. My thoughts are scary enough when I can edit them at will. I want to be accountable for my actions. It's the mature, responsible thing to do. I'm capable of making myself feel better without the help of a drug; I refuse to give up my self-sufficiency. At the end of the day, all I have is myself and my brain and I'm going to take care of them.

Perhaps I've hopped to firmly onto my soap box, but I remained mostly silent during that discussion and I just had to get it out. Their selfishness and close-mindedness appalled me. There's a world out there and the community college pothead does not have all the answers in it. I hope one of them realized they're just being a cog on a wheel, with a make believe agenda.

DARE was cheesy and ineffective. Perhaps if they taught it that way, at the core of the problem, we wouldn't need weed to get by in life. But, hey, at least I wrote a cool rap.