As many of you know, I do smoke weed. Call me a hypocrite though as I’m writing this on April 13th and I am in fact not stoned as it is 12:30pm. I don’t normally smoke during the day through the week Monday-Friday only in the evenings and I do write these out to be scheduled in order to save time! Not to mention, if I schedule them I am able to not miss out on a week too! Being a new mom takes responsibility and I cannot be high all day every day like I was when before I was pregnant. Before I had become pregnant with my son and weed became legal in Canada I was smoking weed any chance I got! After school, wake and bake on the weekend, and all night and day long! It was easy when you didn’t have to look after a tiny human that’s for sure! Here is my take on weed, and if it is legal where you are, enjoy a toke too!

I first started smoking weed when I was 16 years old. The second time I smoked it in fact, I nearly got caught! I was over at a friends house and his uncle was the husband to my moms friend. Needless to say he basically called us out and I had to lie to my mom saying that I was not smoking weed at all. And after that I just had to be more careful when it came to getting high! I probably did a lot of stupid things too though. My best friend and I used to say we would go to the store. We never did. We would bring wrappers of candy and use those and tell my parents or hers that we ate the candy on the way home. What we actually did was go to the woods up from my house along the path and smoke weed. Rain or shine we were there, no joke! Not to mention the countless hot boxes and Jamaican rains that have been done over the years also too!

Now as most think, or seen to think, weed is as you would expect anything to be that is “drug” related to be controversial. Here where I live, in Canada, Weed is legal everywhere as long as you are of age in the province where you live. Though there is debate to raise the age to 21 due to the fact that weed effects the growing brain and in teenagers the brain does not stop growing til you are above the age of 20 or so. Which I can understand why it is such a taboo subject.

As someone who does smoke weed regularly except for the odd times when I would go a month or two without smoking (And of course, I never smoked when I became pregnant with my son!) I am a firm believer that weed should be treated just as alcohol. You should be of age and you also should be responsible as well. No driving or whatever you wouldn’t do while drinking. Responsibility is key when consuming these type of things as well too. I think as far as Canada is there seems to be not a MAJOR rise in weed related offenses in the eyes of the law as well. Which I think is a good thing.

For me personally, I prefer smoking weed over drinking. Not that there is anything wrong with either if done in moderation of course however for some reason smoking a joint has just appealed to me way more then getting drunk off my face. Maybe it is because |I feel like I am in more control when I smoke weed (Don’t let that confuse you with thinking that I feel like I am invincible!). The way I see it is this. If I smoke a joint at 4pm, Relax and hang out, by 10pm or so I should be good enough to go anywhere if I wanted to, ie maybe drive home from a friends or maybe to the store or whatever. If I was to start drinking at 4pm I really can only have ONE drink and that means basically nothing because I wont be able to catch a buzz, and anything more I wont risk at all due to the fact if I am pulled over and asked to take a roadside sobriety test then I could be in very deep crap!

That being said, I wasn’t always making smart decisions. When I was a teenager (Like most!) I would drive around with friends as we smoked weed. I never had my license but would be a trusted shot gun comfort. Sure looking back that was an extremely stupid thing to do. Was there a lot of Red Flag” moments? Of course there was! Would I change it? Possibly. But it was fun none the less and I would probably be upset if my own kid was doing the same thing when he grows older! As my mom always said, Do as I say not as I do.

Weed was probably something that helped me to connect with a group of people not to mention when I was a teenager it probably helped me stay sane while I was in an abusive relationship too. Though weed was also one of the many reasons we fought it also was something I used to connect with friends and what not too.

I guess what I am trying to say is don’t be stupid if you wish to smoke weed. Enjoy the art of what it is to get high and embrace the journey you are about to take and create some memories! And if you don’t agree with that, It is okay too!

Before I end this wacky and fun to write blog post Ill leave you with this, when I was in college there was a girl who had a saying on her Facebook page. And I firmly believe it. “Weed, For making the bad times good, And the good times better!”

-StaySeeJ08