Cannabus Light Mover
as typical. In the open air of the user's habitat, the
recreational model will be found to be more fruitful.
A second model which, in my opinion, yields more mileage than the traditional and
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The Marijuana Smokers - Chapter 12
conventional images of use is the subcultural or life-style conception of the user.
Marijuana use is the product of the same essentially normal values and beliefs of large
groups of people that guide other kinds of everyday activities and choices. Voting for a
political candidate, making a purchase, reading a magazine or newspaper, listening to
music, playing and watching sports—all of these are influenced by the social groups to
which we belong. No one questions the fact that Jews are more likely to vote Democratic
than Protestants, that a heavier proportion of working-class men read the New York Daily
News than read The New York Times while among professional workers, it is the reverse,
that residents of large cities spend proportionally more of their time and money on
"serious" art and music than do residents of more rural areas. These sorts of subcultural
appeals are well-known and entreat our common sense.
But if our attention turns to less common and more condemned activities, we find it
necessary to ignore these broad and essentially normal appeals and to search out
pathological motives.
If it is the young to whom marijuana appeals, we must assume that
they are rebelling against authority, or trying to kill their fathers, or escaping from
boredom or reality, or whatever. If it is the urban dweller who is more likely to use
marijuana, we
marijuanamedicalseeds point to an anomic, disintegrating urban society. If it is the affluent, then
we complain about how the affluent are overindulging their young, and intone darkly
about the hazards of affluence.
Different social groups in society have somewhat different marijuana potentials.
Greater or lesser proportions of their ranks are likely to try and use the weed because of
characteristics relating to that group. Patterns of use are not accidental, and they are not
pathological. They emerge out of the social fabric of the values and the circumstances of a
segment of society. They do not typically occur as a result of some dark, unconscious
motive. The subcultural attitudes and values of some groups support such an action as
marijuana use, while those of other groups oppose it. In addition, opportunities for use are
differentially dispersed throughout society. Simply by being around the stuff ecologically,
groups differ in their likelihood of taking it.
Thus, when we say that men are more likely to smoke marijuana than women, it is not
permissible to say that men are more likely to be psychiatrically disturbed than women.
Rather, it makes more sense to say that there is something about the role of men in this
society that is related to marijuana Cheapseedscanada use—a greater emphasis on experimentation,
adventure, masculine daring, a greater infl
marijuanamedicalseeds orange-budhempstar
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of the corresponding pyran
about the person, about his characteristics, his way of life, attitudes, notions of
right and wrong, and so on. Marijuana users are of course, a vast and diverse tribe, but
they are not identical to nonusers. They are more likely to have certain kinds of traits. Or,
to put it a different way, people with certain kinds of traits are more likely to try
marijuana. In a sense, some people are more predisposed to use marijuana. Now, at the
same time, we cannot ignore the role of accident, propinquity, fortuitousness, ecology,
location, and situational features of every description that tell us very little about the
person himself. And, too, at the same time, we need not wallow about in the morass of
personality theories of "ego inadequacy," "compensatory mechanisms," "adolescent
rebellion," "rejection of adult authority," and so on, which obfuscate more than they
clarify.
But it is difficult to deny this fundamental fact: marijuana users are different. They are a
different social animal from the nonuser, and in specific ways. It is probably permissible
to say that the marijuana smoker is less attached to the legal structure than is the nonuser.
He is less authoritarian, less likely to follow the rule for the rule's sake, more likely to see
many laws as being unjust. He is more experimental, more adventurous, more daring, at
least vis-à-vis the law. He is not as concerned about the fact of legality or illegality. He is
more likely to have a code of ethics which, he feels, transcends technical law, claiming
allegiance to a "higher order." We would predict that he would be more likely to break the
law than nonusers. Among my respondents, I asked the broad question, "How do you feel
about having broken the law?" Only five respondents (2.5 percent) said that they were
bothered, that they felt guilty about breaking the law; 6 percent said that they had mixed
feelings about their infractions.-The rest, 91 percent of the sample, said that it didn't
bother them, that they didn't think about it, that they didn't consider it against the law (i.e.,
in their own personal creed), that it was a stupid law and ought to be ignored, etc.15] The
simple fact of "obeying the law," in and of itself, meant little or nothing, apparently, to
most of them.
Now, many will condemn this point of view; some will applaud it. The psychologically
inclined will see in it the germ of a self-destructive motive. Others will take it as proof
that users are thrill and kicks oriented. Believers in the "letter of the law" will castigate
(10 of 28)4/15/2004 1:08:08 AM
The Marijuana Smokers - Chapter 9
defenders of its "spirit" will withhold judgment. Regardless of our feelings concerning the
less strict adherence to the rule of law and authority among marijuana users, the fact
remains, this is likely to predispose them toward a higher crime rate, other things being
equal.
It is entirely possible, then, that marijuana smokers are more criminal than their
pink pez seeds @ 5/21/2012 6:21:04 PM: