Weed: The Man Says Its OK and Teens Are Like Whatever Dude
05September

Weed: The Man Says Its OK and Teens Are Like Whatever Dude

Written by Craig Rogers, Posted on , in Section Embracing Our Uniqueness
 
Maybe not for you or the hippie guy strumming away on his guitar in the park, but it seems as if the younger generation isn't finding marijuana as "cool" as they once did. In a recent article, Motherboard comes to the conclusion that the thrill of smoking pot might not be that thrilling for young adults as it climbs its way up general social acceptance.
 
With Colorado and Washington legalizing recreational use of what is lately coming to be known equally as a medicinal plant as it is a recreational drug, and almost half of the states allowing medical use, the engagement with pot itself and teenagers has dramatically decreased. Is it because a great chunk of the population is supporting the cause and that takes the stick-it-to-the-man satisfaction out of it? 
 
"The Gallup poll found that experimentation among 50 to 64-year-olds has increased from 9 percent to 44 percent in 30 years, demonstrating that older people are becoming more comfortable with marijuana as young people may be shying away," reported Motherboard.

Can Marijuana Use be Controlled?

As older people, professionals, and parents begin to open up to the idea of living in a society where marijuana is controlled, taxed and regulated, our younger people are becoming disinterested. It's rather well-known that in these times of "self-becoming", we tend to go on the opposite side of the whatever our elders have chosen. Oh, you think short hair looks best? I'm never getting a haircut. I'm going to let this massive mane grow until it touches the ground, says every seventeen year old boy rebelling ever.
 
Rebellion is something that everyone goes through at some point in their lives, be it their teen years or their late twenties, we get the urge to test the waters on the exact polar end of the spectrum from whatever box we feel that our parents or society or whomever else we might feel persecuted by has put us in. But as our youth becomes less interested in the long-lived "gate-way drug", will another come into the picture?
 
With an increasing array of so-called legal highs entering the market every single day, the attention of many young people who might otherwise have experimented with weed, has been turned to substances that go by names like bath salts, plant food and spice.
 
At this point, at least with pot, we know the issues that regular use and experimentation can lead to. But when it comes to these new synthetic drug alternatives, there is simply too little known about them to draw any conclusions. The purity and the combination of the chemicals that make up each drug are unknown to the user when they buy them. These drugs are often made in Chinese labs and sold in small batches from head shops.
 
So while the attention of many young people might be diverted momentarily from marijuana, it's not as if the age old curiosity that drives many young people to experiment with drugs is truly going anywhere.