Shallon Lester is my guilty pleasure. When I want a burst of girl talk, I watch her YouTube channel, where she breaks down the shenanigans of various celebrities in a bid to extract life lessons. I like Shallon because she’s got opinions and doesn’t hold back. Mostly, she makes me laugh. However, on the topic of cannabis, that’s when I’ve got to say, whoa, girl, you got it all wrong.
In this particular vid on the perils of dating someone messy, she segues into a rant on why she hates weed. She mentions a friend who can’t get out of bed without a puff and reports a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia in young men. Of course she’s going to reach for the most damning evidence. Her goal is to entertain. But still, I’m sick of this. Let’s clear up some myths around cannabis use. Here we go:
MYTH I: Squares don’t smoke
Don’t be fooled by the hoodies, bandanas or clouds of smoke, stoners are the biggest geeks you’ll ever meet in your life. In fact, because being stoned lends itself so well to solitude, stoners tend to be experts in activities that one does alone: practicing guitar, playing video games, watching movies, reading, writing, painting, coding, hiking, surfing, fishing, baking, and so on.
Sure the stereotype gives the impression that stoners hang out in groups listening to Snoop Dogg or Tom Waits but, in general, stoners are loners. We don’t mix well. We don’t have to. We’re happy in our own company, engrossed in a task or hobby. The point is that whereas in school, weed may be seen as the purview of the ‘cool kids,’ out here in real life, those kids become adults with jobs and bills and probably a paunch. And a Netflix subscription. Just like everyone else.
MYTH 2: A cannabis user is a mess
Cannabis users come in all shapes and sizes. Doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, artists, mothers, fathers, cousins, the list goes on. It’s no longer possible to point at one group of people and label them ‘stoners.’ Sure, the black hoodie crew is the dominant cultural stereotype but they’re not representative of all users, not by a long shot.
Especially when studies show that women, due to their pesky hormones, are more likely to get addicted to cannabis than men. And women have different consumption habits than men, far more cloaked. Many women rely on their partners to buy their weed and many women only consume at home because there are no other convenient options available to them.
I’m in a regular cannabis user, and if I knew a user who couldn’t get out of bed without a smoke, I’d be concerned. I’d want to know what else is going on in that person’s life and I wouldn’t advocate for cannabis as a solution. I use cannabis because it makes the best parts of my life better. Why would you continue to do something that you know makes your life worse? Which bring me to my next point.
MYTH 3: Cannabis attracts toxic people
If I’m continuing to do something that makes my life worse, I’ve got problems and cannabis ain’t the half of it. And yet, we all do this, all the time. Acquiesce on a boundary, lean into the familiar, easy, destructive option because it’s familiar and easy. Until we pay the price, which is also familiar. I recently allowed a toxic person back into my life.
And after they turned my world upside down, I ousted them again, in a spectacular fashion befitting our dynamic. Being a little older, I was able to watch my behaviour and ask why I was engaging in old patterns? Why was I so willing to give my power to this person? And did it have anything to do with cannabis? The fact that cannabis is shared ground between us is not irrelevant.
Because their use is heavier than mine, it means I can be around someone who makes me look good – if only to myself. And for the period of time that this person was around, my use escalated. I broke my own boundaries. So it wasn’t much of a stretch to let someone else tear down another boundary. But it wasn’t cannabis that caused the problem. It was my own toxicity that attracted it – a big difference.
MYTH 4: Using cannabis is opting out
Cannabis is my way into my work and I know that’s true for countless other users. I also know dozens of people who might not be here if it weren’t for medical cannabis. And while there may be plenty of people who use cannabis as a way to escape, they pretty quickly figure out that cannabis is not the best option to run from problems. Why? Cannabis highlights problems.
After 30 years of use, I’ve seen every shade of cannabis user, and believe me, everyone has their own take on it. That’s because the magic of cannabis is that it works in harmony with the physiology of the user. This is not a new discovery. The first person to explain this was Dr. JJ Moreau in his 1845 masterpiece, Hashish and Mental Alienation, in which he discussed the psychological effects of cannabis. He was the first doctor to do this.
And the work is refreshingly relevant to this day. Moreau understood that cannabis has the ability to alter a user’s sense of time and sound while at the same time never losing touch with self or reality. And he noted that of the countless cases he witnessed, he rarely encountered a person who abused it. Cannabis doesn’t lend itself to abuse the way others drugs do, unless the physiology of the user permits that abuse.
MYTH 5: Cannabis puts young men at risk for schizophrenia
This old chestnut. Can someone please lift the needle on the record? Studies by the American psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard show that young men with a disposition for schizophrenia are more likely to use cannabis and that’s all. As Grinspoon and Dr. David Nutt, the British neuropsychopharmacologist, point out in The Culture High, if you look at rates of schizophrenia globally, there is no concurrent rise along with rises in cannabis use.
The suggestion that there is a correlation is rooted in the 1930s stigma-building machine that was Harry J. Anslinger, and is, in essence, a big old lie. And where did the 1930s campaigners get the idea there was a link between cannabis and mental illness? Well, we can thank Dr. Moreau for that. In his study on cannabis use, he specifically looked for ways that cannabis use might mimic mental illness, and he created a powerful case. So much so, he inadvertently kicked off two centuries of stigma.
Dr. Moreau never claimed a direct link between cannabis and madness. What he did claim was that cannabis highlights your existent state. If your baseline is anxious, cannabis could make you a paranoid wreck. If your baseline is dreamy, cannabis could reinforce your delusions. If your baseline is schizophrenic, cannabis may set you on fire. I’m not saying there are no risks – that would be crazy. But the problem is that we still understand so little about mental illness, which makes everything a potential risk factor.
MYTH 6: Wake and bake is every day
It’s really important for people to understand what their baseline is before using cannabis because it will help some folk and can destroy others. Shallon Lester’s friend who can’t get out of bed without a puff is a case in point. This woman needs help not judgment. And while she may be typical of many people today, she’s not the typical cannabis user.
I know plenty of users who puff in the morning. But they do so in preparation for the day, and they then go about their busy days. Cannabis is how they get stuff done, in particular repetitive or daunting tasks that they might otherwise overlook for weeks and then do badly under pressure. Cannabis helps them stay on top of work not ignore it.
If I’m up for a wake and bake it’s usually a weekend, or something bad has happened, and I’m out of sorts. This was the case recently when my dog passed away. I jumped to my support system: cannabis. I upped my use for a spell. But that didn’t mean I stopped working or talking to people or paying bills. It meant I was sad for a while and using a balm. That’s okay. That’s life. That’s my life. It’s not for everyone.
The Healthy Hashhead 