Odin

I love marijuana. It's a funny thing, though, how we've dealt with the chemical in our society: it's a schedule 1 drug, a designation that denotes a substance with a high potential for abuse and no legitimate applications in medicine, but that's a stigmatizing label that belies its real nature. Marijuana is not for degenerates or idiots or partiers; pot is for thinkers. The alcohol comparison is a cliche, but it's really pretty telling: the marijuana high intensifies stimuli instead of deadening the user's surroundings; your impulses become creative as opposed to destructive; and the stoner tends not to feel compelled to drive.

The potential damage of the drug, though, isn't really the issue. What's interesting is how many professional, artistic and spiritual benefits there are to the mindful use of cannabis. Weed is not a stupefacient; pot sets off explosions of associations and perceptions in the user's brain, and those connections serve as the keystone of marijuana intoxication. When you're high, there's an electric current running through your mind; you're alive to the ostensibly unimportant details of existence of which you've been subliminally conscious but not truly aware your entire life. Cannabis exposes the internal realities of things. It doesn't let you take them for granted.

Beyond that, though, it tricks your mind into functioning in ways you couldn't even fathom if you haven't experienced them before: a lot has been written about how smokers sit around and dabble in pseudo-philosophy, but I don't think that stereotype is typical. Pot is a mental lubricant, a creative stimulant: when I first started smoking, for instance, I found it nearly impossible to write when I was stoned, but now I've learned to control the experience and to channel that euphoric energy into something productive. Lately I've written chunks of poems and stories and essays under the influence of cannabis (it *does* tend to be hard to finish what you start), and they've really surprised me--they're not any better or any worse than what I write when I'm clear, but they're a great deal different, and I'm always surprised and impressed by the new words and unusual descriptions I come up with when I'm high.

I have no question that cannabis is a wonderful tool, but as far as legalization is concerned, I'm pretty conflicted. I support decriminalization, but that's another issue entirely. When the United States embraces outright legalization--and I say 'when' and not 'if' because I think it's only a matter of time--I think the major tobacco companies will pounce on the chance to sell marijuana cigarettes, and I don't know about you, but I don't want R.J. Reynolds rolling my joints. I think big tobacco would eventually crush the smaller purveyors of pot ('dealers' is such an ugly word) because they'd be slow to adjust to the changing market: they'd still sell their 20s and their 50s, and the big corporations would start selling a pack of joints for 5 bucks, or what have you, and the underground sellers certainly wouldn't reap the same protection from the government. They'd be driven out of business. So I'm not uncomfortable that marijuana is techincally an illicit substance, but like I said, I think with the overwhelming success of decriminalization experiments in Belgium and the Netherlands, it's inevitable that the United States will begin to take notice once groups like NORML become more powerful and American attitudes toward psychoactives become more liberal. It's only a matter of time.

Another concern somebody raised in jest--GD, I think--was that legalization would cost a great many jobs, and a lot of people don't realize how valid that concern turns out to be. Consultants with NIDA, federal workers connected to the cannabis branch of the war on drugs, employees of the companies that produce THC detectors, employees of the companies that produce products to fool THC detectors--all out of work. The way the economy is connected to the illicit trafficking of marijuana is surprising, and even the number of legitimate jobs that depend on that illicit status is staggering.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. For me, there's no question that marijuana, used mindfully and responsibly, has the potential to increase happiness, to raise productivity, and to improve life in general. It's funny that this topic arose when it did, because just last weekend I had an experience with cannabis that was so bewildering I probably shouldn't even try to describe it. We were at the beach and we decided to smoke, so we did, and that was that. We stayed on the sand for about an hour, and right when the high settled in I noticed something I hadn't felt before. The ocean compelled me to walk toward it, but it wasn't like walking at all--I was drawn to the waves as if by magnetism, as if I had no ability to stop and walk back toward the cliff where we smoked. I only got about knee deep in the water and I was finally able to stop, and when I did I began to focus on the sound of the ocean. It was truly a spiritual experience. Even looking back on that night in the light of sobriety I don't consider that sensation to be a drug-induced delusion; I consider it a kind of vision. It was as if the groans of the ocean were the voice of God, as if he had revealed his identity and the sculpted nature of his creations to me in an instantaneous flicker of perception. It was a challenge to my convictions, to say the least.

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--Bryan Keers, biggest badass ever