“The whole conversation started when me and three friends were walking to McDonalds after school. One of my friends was smoking a cigarette and the other one was telling him how stupid he looked smoking it and how unhealthy it was.
Inside I snapped. The same guy who was scolding him for smoking cigarettes was a pot smoker. I said, “How can you get down on him for smoking cigarettes when you smoke pot? Pot is much worse than cigarettes.” He told me how wrong I was and that pot really wasn’t that bad. He said even doctors prescribe marijuana legally. I told him that one marijuanna joint is equal to about five to seven cigarettes. Marijuana messes you up physically and mentally—and it does the damage faster than cigarettes do. It can affect your sexual performance. Doctors only prescribe it for certain terminal illnesses, and even that is controversial in the medical community.
He tried to convince me that it wasn’t that bad since he only did it “once in a while.” What he doesn’t know is that once in a while is still harmful. Besides leaving harmful toxins in your body, it makes you mentally dull and uninteresting. I used to have a friend who was really sharp. She wanted to be a photographer. Then she dropped out and started going to continuation school and smoking pot. She had a lot of pressures at home, and her pot use mounted. Despite my objections, as well as trying to get me to do it, she continues to use it. Now it seems like her only concern is where to get her next joint. We’re not even friends anymore.
I tried to convince my friends of the dangers of pot
As me and my three friends entered the McDonald’s and sat down to eat our grease-sponge “gourmet” meal, our debate continued. I explained to them how marijuana is a gateway to other drugs. Once you know where to get it, why not try something else? You’ll be curious to try other, stronger drugs.
I also told them how it alters your emotional maturity. Say you start using marijuana heavily at 14. Once you are 17 or 18 and you decide to quit, you will still have the same emotional maturity level as a 14-year-old. You will react to things in the same way and deal with things the same way.
They didn’t want to hear about the dangers of marijuana
My friends basically thought this was BS.
“Look,” one of them said, “since you never tried it you don’t know how good it feels.” I told him that I didn’t need to try it, I already knew its harmful effects. I used to drink to forget about my problems with my friends and family, how I looked, my grades, girls. It was easier to drink than to deal with life. After I decided that I didn’t like it and didn’t want to do it anymore, it become increasingly harder to deal with my problems. But instead of using alcohol to deal with my problems, I faced them head on and came up with other solutions. Ultimately I was better able to deal with my problems without alcohol. I also learned from other people’s example.
I remember drinking at a party once and a guy there refused to do it. He continued to refuse having “just one beer.” He explained that his family had a history of drinking which turned him off to it. I couldn’t believe it, this guy was bravely standing up to a room of drinkers and sticking to his beliefs. I had to respect that, and deep down I wished that I could have as much will as he did. This is the same with pot, you can’t puff away your problems. You are only creating new ones, because now you have a drug problem.
Then I got my friends all riled up when I said that the main reason why they do pot at all was to escape their problems. One guy got up and started walking away, “I don’t want to listen to this psychological bull,” he said.
Then my other friend pointed out, “Yeah, you’re right, he’s just running away from his problems again.”
The first guy came back and sat down and all three of them kept telling me why I was a dork.
I also argued that pot is dangerous because you don’t notice the effects it has on you. You are sedated and aren’t fully aware of everything happening around you. You’re basically out of touch with reality.
Another reason why so many people do it is because it’s illegal. Being rebellious teenagers, this just makes it more desirable.
“Okay, then how do you explain my friend who has a 4.0 grade point average, many friends, he’s happy and he smokes pot?”
I asked him how he knew he was happy. Maybe it was just a facade. Why would an emotionally healthy person even have the desire to do it at all? Grades are a good indicator of book smarts but not much of anything else.
The main reason I wrote this article was to dispell many myths that people have about marijuana. It just gets me so angry when I hear people say that marijuana is fine to do since it’s really not that bad for you. If you feel like this or you hear any of your friends say it then just give them this article.
The temptation to do it is strong. Most of the people I have grown up with use it and have tried to get me started. It hasn’t been easy to say no. Since I don’t want to hang out with people who are drinking or getting stoned, I don’t get included on weekend plans or parties. Sometimes I feel bad, thinking about how many friends I might have if I smoked pot. But instead, I have done constructive things like writing for LA Youth, working at a theater, reading a lot and volunteering at TeenLine.
It’s “in” to smoke marijuana
Society makes you think it’s not that bad. Cypress Hill and other rap groups are out there endorsing pot. You can see people wearing hats or shirts with the marijuana leaf on it. Apparently it’s the “in” thing to do. How did this whole idea of messing up your body get started in the first place? Why do all the supposed “cool” and “popular” people in my school do it? Why couldn’t it be cool to be good to your body? According to teens, the more f——d up you are, the cooler you are. This makes no sense to me, which is why I am and always will be a virgin to pot!”