I remember

I remember what it was like to smoke pot. I smoked for ten years.  When I started it was once a month.  Then over time it was once a week.  At the worst it was all day long. I’d wake up and get stoned.  When the buzz would wear off I’d smoke some more. Meanwhile I was in college.  I had a job.  I was fully functional as an adult.  All my bills got paid. But I still knew it wasn’t smart.

I remember one time I wanted to quit but I just wasn’t ready to go cold turkey.  I told myself I could slow down.  I didn’t want to smoke every day.   I took my supply of pot and my pipe and I wrapped them up in plastic and sealed it with rubber bands.   I then put it up on a shelf in my closet so I’d have to get a chair to get it.  I figured this would make me think several times about what I was about to do. I figured it would slow me down.

I remember time and time again going for that bundle, opening it up and smoking, and the whole time wondering why I was doing it.  It was as if I was possessed.  I didn’t want to smoke, and here I was smoking.  It was insane.  Nobody was forcing me to do it, but I couldn’t stop. I felt helpless. And this is just pot. It wasn’t heroin, or oxycontin.

People say pot isn’t addictive.  They say it is a gateway drug, that it leads you to other, harder drugs, but that pot itself is harmless. I say otherwise, from my own experience.  There’s about ten years of my life that pot has that I missed.  This is why I’m opposed to the legalization of pot. Look how well we are doing with alcohol being legal.  Look how many people’s lives are ruined by it. Why would we add another way for people to be mindless?