Weed is one of those drugs that everyone loves to justify using. It’s harmless, it’s just a plant, and it doesn’t slow you down. This is what most people say to justify their habits. I don’t lie to myself. When I smoked weed like a chimney I knew the drawbacks, and I want to talk about those drawbacks in this article.
Why would you smoke weed if it’s bad?
Weed helps with nightmares, and makes you less aggressive when you feel paranoid (even if you feel more paranoid than when sober). In short, it keeps me from being violent and miserable. So basically it’s a crutch. One that I’ve used for a bit too long to endure the monotony that comes with honing my craft. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t drawbacks.
Weed probably causes lung cancer, which takes a very long time to show up
They say that we aren’t sure if weed causes lung cancer, and that weed smokers are less likely to have lung cancer than the general population. I think this is a dumb fact to rest your laurels on. The average person gets lung cancer after age 70. No 70-year-old pot-smoking cohort of over 10,000 people has been studied that I know of. Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong. Smoking anything is crazy. I’ve been doing it less as of late.
Weed will make you crazy
Weed messes with your mind in a lot of subtle ways. It makes you super duper paranoid. I don’t trust anyone. I think I’m right not to trust anyone, but sometimes I think people are going to try to hurt me. Most people aren’t going to try to hurt you. If you smoke lots of weed, there’s pretty much no way you’re going to be able to prevent yourself from having these kinds of thoughts.
Weed makes you care less about unimportant tasks, which is killer if you don’t know where you’re going
Most people who smoke weed are young drifters. People going with the flow. The problem with going with the flow is that the flow is usually downhill. While weed can be extremely psychedelic, there’s nothing inherently enlightening about smoking, so you won’t be making better decisions than average. You’re also going to be a bit slower, so you’ll make mistakes in environments that are controlled by others. This can be embarrassing or disastrous in more socially conservative circles. If you don’t have a 10-year plan, don’t be smoking weed. Your life won’t change, and you won’t try anything new at all. I promise you that much. It’s important to try random stuff when you’re young. I’ve tried producing music, affiliate marketing, media buying, web design, starting my own brand of rolling papers, writing novels, door-to-door sales, street fundraising, and blogging. I was a pothead while doing those things, but I always had a plan: get rich by 30–32. Trying out all those things has set me up nicely to build my dream in my 20s.
What weed is good for
As bad as weed can be, I think there are some good uses for weed that aren’t totally medicinal. Weed can be helpful for PTSD, chronic pain, and doing long monotonous work. I will be honest, I’m still smoking weed as I write articles. I’m knocking out about 60–120 at once so that the search engines can find me as grow my YouTube channel. I’ll be off of this stuff soon, but for now, I’m just using it to deal with the boredom. That being said, the push should be to minimize both weed and cigarette usage. It just isn’t worth it long term.
