I can definitely understand peoples’ issues with it being consumed, especially in a political context, but how do yall feel about “weed”? I won’t hide my feelings, I am very much pro-weed, it’s not great that I started in my mid-teens but in my area it’s FAR from uncommon. I don’t smoke daily or anything, I’m not addicted to it (people say it’s non-habit forming but any drug can be addictive with enough frequent usage) but I do smoke and dab w/ friends often. That’s not why I believe in legalization tho, my main thing is you shouldn’t make a naturally occurring plant an illegal substance. I’d point to the DEA’s destructive (legal) burning of thousands of naturally occurring marijuana plants found in nature; This seems eco-fascist to me and to deny the uses of hemp as a production material seems dogmatic to me. The USSR used hemp for industrial purposes during the war and it helped in a major way. I’m sure most of us are familiar with the badge given for Hemp growers. If you have any criticisms, I’m more than open to it, but I feel that marijuana won’t be easy to get rid of in future society and would probably be put to use in different more productive ways.

  • Absolute
    11•1 year ago

    Drugs are the number one thing that I struggle to approach from a balanced Marxist perspective by far. The way that drugs are pervasive in western society, especially for those of us who grew up in very working class urban areas in North America, makes them a difficult topic for me. I have been exposed to drugs my entire life, bought, sold, consumed them, ect. I have been thinking for a while now that we need a good struggle session on the grad about drugs, usage, access, legalization and what not. I very much want to hear the perspective of comrades that come from places or backgrounds where they are not so ubiquitous.

    Specifically in terms of weed, I struggle with it a lot. On one hand, I have been addicted to smoking weed for the best part of the past decade on a near daily basis, and it has definitely impacted my life in negative ways. On the other hand, it also saved me from alcohol and amphetamine abuse basically. I often think about the Frank Ocean album Blonde, where there is an interlude that talks about how marijuana makes you “lazy stupid and unconcerned” or something along those lines. That is absolutely the truth I think. I could have accomplished a lot more in my 20s were it not for the comfort of going home to smoke weed, I think anyway. I’m very sympathetic to arguments both for and against its place in society.

    Putting people in prison or ruining their lives over it is obviously terrible, especially in regards to the way it has been used in the US to target the black population. That being said, I don’t think that it being a thing that most every young person gets into is good either. There must be some balance to be found, but right now I am not sure what it is. And this is just weed, that’s not even talking about harder drugs which I think are a similar but different topic.

    Very interested to hear other comrade’s thoughts on this anyway, thank you for the post.