MARIJUANA HAS THE POWER TO ENLIGHTEN

Try as I might to be contentious, sometimes I'm obliged to write
something that I feel will go over well with the majority of the
student body. Not because I'm selling my literary soul in an effort to
pander to your tastes, mind you, but simply because we both believe
it's true.

Marijuana is long past due to be fully legalized. I'm not going to get
into the original reasons why marijuana was criminalized, nor why it
continues to be so, mostly because I don't know all that much about it
and am too lazy to research. Whatever their reasons were, though, the
lawmakers got it wrong.

Now, undoubtedly, there are those of you reading whose stomachs have
just tightened uncomfortably, whose anuses have snapped shut like so
many startled clams, and who are on the verge of a thorough
panty-bunching fret over the health, welfare, and mental stability of
your fellow man, to say nothing of the fate of the universe. These are
drugs we're talking about. I sympathize.

Most drug use is, in my opinion, if not in itself inimical to
happiness, then at least representative of some unaddressed underlying
source of unhappiness. Drug abuse often begins not because the
influence of the drug is so immediately compelling, nor because the
drug itself is so physically addictive, but because it offers very
effective suppression of the subconscious awareness of these sources
of unhappiness, and because it can be administered entirely at the
discretion of the user. It offers tractable escape.

Not so with your old friend Mary Jane. I'm sure most marijuana smokers
have experienced those painful moments of glaring introspection, where
your own failings, hypocrisies and inadequacies are laid on the
examining table. Marijuana, far from offering some sort of
anaesthetized hallucinatory delirium or an illusion of invincibility
or inexhaustible energy, simply offers a more accentuated and focused
view of the world around us and inside us.

Carl Sagan, one of the best men I've ever known, celebrated
astronomer, writer and humanitarian, was an avid user and proponent of
marijuana. For Carl, for me, for everyone I know who appreciates
marijuana, it's a portal to the most fascinating, vibrant and simple
joys that life possesses: subtle nuances of form and colour in
artwork, the intricate layers and fineries of good music, a refinement
of the palette capable of discerning the delicate interplay and
components of food, a feeling of brotherhood and communion among
friends, a disposition towards compassion and tolerance, a closeness
and wild intensity in sex, a heightening, a re-evaluation, and an
intensification of those same senses which are our constant window to
the world.

However, it should not be pretended that marijuana has no drawbacks.
Controlled studies have been done showing that it can impair one's
ability to drive, especially when complemented with alcohol. It can
accentuate paranoia for people with otherwise mild social anxiety. It
can lead to unhealthy dietary choices, like chips and ice cream. In
spite of these shortcomings, however, as a whole, and taken
moderately, I believe it to be a beneficial substance.

I make no apologies for my use of marijuana, nor for promoting its use
amongst others. The level of irrationality and hypocrisy surrounding
North American drug policies has reached a ludicrous pitch. Step into
the nearest hospital or pharmacy and observe the level of drug use,
many of which have abominable side effects. Walk to the closest
grocery store or coffee peddler and observe the steady stream of
grotesquely obese customers filling their carts with caffeine-rich
colas, or waiting irritably for their morning "fix." Walk to the
closest bar and observe the effects of our culture's most accepted and
legitimized drug use: belligerence, animosity, irrationality,
violence, oblivion to even the strongest stimulation; a surreal circus
of the most primal, undignified and transparent human motivations.
Then look me in the eye and tell me marijuana is harmful.

I'll laugh in your face.