This is the first article I have ever written directly on the experience of getting stoned. People have requested I take up this subject for a long time, but I had debated for a long time on the best method to take up this issue. After hearing about the latest report from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, I decided I had to take up this issue.

If you have been listening to the news over the past few days, you would that this report stated that only about 12 million Americans use any kind of substance including smoking Marijuana, and that more teens are abusing prescription drugs then getting stoned. I certainly hope both of those facts are false as getting stoned has many benefits over any other kind of drug.

Experience seems to contradict these two facts. I have seen plenty of students smoking joints at both the University at Albany and Hudson Valley Community College in plainly visible places such as in front the Campus Center. Everybody knows this, and nobody stops it. Many of my neighbors grow pot, as do some of my friends and it seems as though many farmers prop up their income by growing this taboo substance.

The office of National Drug Control Policy also has other misinformation that they propagate in society such as the lie that marijuana is more powerful then today. Certainly, some strains of the pot plant have been breed to be stronger then yesteryear. Not all marijuana is created equal though. The real danger is the underground commercial marijuana often found in the suburbs laced with more dangerous drugs.

Peace and Freedom: And it's Downside

Marijuana is infamous for it's ability to impose a peaceful feeling of its users that allow them to freely explore the world. Marijuana lowers inhibition and allows you to think, write, and speak things that would never otherwise be possible. We live in a very repressed society where free expression is often prevented by our conscience or our fear of repercussions for expressing. After a joint or two, all of that reality melts away and we can freely express.

All of that free expression is good, but it can come with consequences. For one, marijuana at times increases your perception of evil and justice and might even induce a sort of paranoia. To me, it makes me angry at the decline of civil liberties and what I see to be fundamentally unfair. I might not inspired to do anything about the problem when I'm stoned, my words sometimes reflect this paranoia.

Marijuana also distorts reality in a number of ways. Besides making you less likely to act on anything, it makes you lazy and forgetful. The world often seems so colorful when stoned, but typically the pictures you take come out terrible as you forget to focus the camera or set the aperture to the right size. You can forget where you are and do forget to do important things like putting your car in park.

With the structure-less nature of the world stoned, it seems as though rambling is norm. You can freely explore almost anything under the influence of pot and the world is so colorful, but it's impossible to accurately capture that experience. Ideas stop making sense, and things become little more then rambles about the free world you are experiencing.

Conclusions

Marijuana is a good tool to allow you to brainstorm and imagine reality as never otherwise possible. It shouldn't be abused or consumed everyday, as it's possible to become addicted to it like any other behavior. Similarly, you should never operate a motor vehicle or any other dangerous piece of equipment stoned. It's okay to think stoned, but not to engage in action. A person always lost in space is one who can not positively contribute to society. Our society would be much better off if people were allowed to freely experience society through marijuana.