The Myth of the Secluded Stoner: The Apartheid of Marijuana Prohibition

I received this email from Andreas:

Hi, i just had a debate with a friends friend of mine about cannabis.
And he stated that his exprerience with cannabis users was that all of them in one way or another became dependent, used all the time and got “framed off” form the people around them.

I didn´t know these people so of course i couldn´t say it was false but how do you tackle these arguments?

And what are you experience with cannabis consumers? (sure you have experience :))

Ask your friend this hypothetical:  If coffee were illegal, and you and your friends could be arrested and imprisoned for drinking it or even possessing it; if getting and keeping a job meant either not drinking coffee or wearing a pouch of clean urine on your thigh; if simply knowing you enjoy coffee was something that most people would frown on and some might turn you in for… would you stop drinking coffee, or would you “frame off” your coffee drinking from the non-coffee drinkers around you?

Cannabis users don’t frame themselves off from society, it’s quite the reverse.  Society defines cannabis users as criminals; society is “framing off” us.  Your friends do notice something quite true; many cannabis consumers do keep to themselves and their cannabis consuming friends.  Some may even be clinically dependent; I won’t lie, there is such a diagnosis and about 9% of cannabis users develop it (compared to 15% for alcohol and 32% for tobacco, and the withdrawal symptoms for cannabis pale in comparison). What they don’t realize is that they only see the tip of the iceberg – they’re going to notice the pot smokers who develop dependence because the ones who don’t develop dependence (most of us, like 91%) maintain very normal lives a lot like theirs.

While the cannabis community is a definite sub-culture, it has many varieties, from the tie-dye / musician / artist / rapper / medical patient set you know smokes pot to the lawyer / doctor / teacher / preacher / parent set who keep it perfectly hidden.  Most of us don’t want to be “in the closet” and cannabis, while beneficial and important, is not the greatest defining part of ourselves by a long shot.

But prohibition of cannabis makes it so for those who don’t partake.  In cannabis we have an herb less addictive than coffee, less intoxicating than alcohol, and far less harmful than both.  But do coffee and beer drinkers feel “framed off” from society to you?  Can you identify a leading beer activist?  Can you name a “coffee drinker” movie?  Of course not, because coffee and beer are legal and well integrated into our lives, accepted by most, tolerated by the rest.  Once our coffee and beer drinking friends know we prefer cannabis, however, that becomes a major defining part of us to them, because now they know a criminal.

I’d also caution your friends about making diagnoses of “dependence”.  Daily use is not necessarily dependence in the clinical sense.  Is the daily coffee break “dependence”?  Probably not.  Is the after work beer “dependence”?  It can be, but it usually isn’t.  Is daily cannabis use “dependence”?  It can be, but less likely than the daily beer.

If you use cannabis daily, and it makes you feel good, and you fulfill your obligations to others and responsibilities at work, what’s the problem?  I’m that guy, and I also don’t drink coffee or beer, and don’t need aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, indigestion remedies, laxatives, sleeping aids, or cold and flu pills.  Why wouldn’t I keep using cannabis daily?  That’s not dependence, that’s common sense!  I don’t recommend it for everybody, but daily cannabis works well for me.