The Social Tendencies of People Who Smoke Varying Degrees of Smoking Weed,
aka Kush on Campus: The Stoner Steps.
So this past semester I took Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, which, although being taught by a rash Communist, made me do some thinking. This wasn't hard, it was an interesting subject, but one thing I took away from it was the science behind it. The best way to view a specific group of people is to live in, with, and amongst them. Whether its a tribe of indigenous peoples in South America or your own team, business, place of worship, street corner, dentist, you name it. It's all about seeing where you live, what's around you, who else is there.
I took this idea, of just watching my surroundings, to heart. I've truly been thinking about who I'm with, how what I know about their past fits with their behavior, stuff like that. So, here it is:
The Different Social Tendencies of Varying Marijuana Users, or as I like to call it,
Kush on Campus: Stoner Steps. After a semester of college, I've witnessed particular tendencies amongst the stoner community. I've seen kids from "Never will I ever ever ever smoke!" To taking an occasional hit. Kids who smoked a little in high school now smoked a lot. Kids who smoked a lot….. Smoked more. Or maybe they stopped. Different people reacted differently to the more freedom found in college. What brought about this change? What’s next? What are the varying degrees of smoking? And so, my first anthropological piece. About smoking weed. In college. Alright!
The following is my own personal account of how one is influenced to join a growing culture in the United States today. By some accounts, up to 41% of Americans have admitted to trying marijuana, more than double the percentage of people who smoke tobacco. What would convince 2/5ths of all Americans to break the law, and smoke this tropical herb? I have tried to come up with a social account, speaking from the observed experiences of various college kids. I have friends that fit into each one of the following categories, and, while some have indeed become notorious “stoner burnouts,” far more have gone on to lead exceedingly normal lives. Read on!
Note: I highly recommend seeing both “
The Union” and “
Drugs, Inc: Marijuana” before reading. Both of these will give you valuable insight into the reasoning and science behind the status of marijuana today, and its history in the United States.
•
The Never-Ever
o In a negative connotation : They were probably scared stiff of their middle school D.A.R.E officer, can often be close-minded, or has had a bad personal experience with a friend or relative ruining their life with marijuana or other drugs. Refuses to have anything to do with it, and flips a shit on Mary-Jane jokes. Not fun for neither the user nor the “nevee”. Often can resort to proselytizing to attempt to convince the others of the herb’s evil.
o No Opinion/Willing to accept it : These people are willing to accept being around it, but this often comes only after being extremely comfortable within a particular group. Can morph into a possible willingness to try it, especially as a bond within a particular group is strengthened over time.
• The First Time: Often viewed in the context of a group smoking together and wishing to join in, sometimes with soft peer pressure, especially if the person’s acquiescence and/or willingness is well-known. Can be alcohol-induced, which means their night will end shortly as mixing is often reserved for habitual users (too many new substances, donchakno). Often their comfort level in a group and/or athlete status can hinder their entrance into the marijuana arena.
• Special Occasions – After the first time, many first-timers may decide that it is not for them. However, with soft peer pressure, many may choose to only smoke for concerts or other experiences in which marijuana is most often associated. Often can be as little as once every few months, often this user can count the number of times smoked on one hand. Always very situational-dependent. For athletes, their off-season is when this will most likely occur.
• Habits Form – This bracket is defined by their frequency. Smoking up to once a night once a week is not uncommon. Frequency can increase slowly, and over time, especially as techniques become more refined. Mastering both the breathing techniques and the use of a “rush” or “carb” on a smoking piece are signs of one’s ability to begin smoking successfully. This is generally the “noobish” phrase of smoking.
• The First Buy – Often the need is felt to repay their comrades for numerous smoke-ups. Their first buy might be indirect, when a person is given the money to buy a little extra for said person. Shows flexibility in smoking, often with different people or in different scenarios. Different from throwing a person some money for smoking them up, it shows an independence from the mentor, a willingness to smoke with people other than the original mentor.
• Buying in Bulk – From the first buy, frequency and amount smoked can increase. Smoking socially is the norm, with between 3 and 6 in on a bowl. Stress or celebrating particular events can bring the number smoking to 2, but this is rare. For the most part social bowls, typically after all the work of the day is complete, will be the norm.
o
A note on amounts: An eighth of an ounce, or 3.5 grams (sometimes called “slices”) are the norm for buying. A slice can vary in price from anywhere between $35 to $60 depending on the quality of the bud. Cheaper smokers frequently buy only $10 worth of weed, commonly called a “dime bag”, but obviously the amount received of this will vary. Amounts are typically described in relation to an ounce, i.e. an eighth (3.5g), a quarter (7g), a half (14g), even up to a full ounce, which is typically viewed as, legally, the largest amount a person would have on them for personal use. Anything after that is legally viewed as being held with an intention to sell.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That last step is the most common one amongst college smokers. For many, they enjoy any one of the various aspects of smoking marijuana. Everything from being social and bringing people together, to experience the effects, or even to merely blend in with a crowd of other musicians or hippies. For lack of a better term, I will call that “harmless” smoking. Now we delve into those kids who have been irresponsible (I don’t use the term lightly) with marijuana.
• Smoking Alone – As with the first smoke and the first buy, the first smoke alone is significant as it reflects a change in one’s attitude towards the use of marijuana. This shift is often one of an emotional nature and represents a break from the social norms established in the prior levels. Humans are naturally pack animals, and doing anything by oneself is often seen as abnormal. The reasons behind smoking alone are many: everything from simple boredom to depression to a feeling of reward after the completion of a difficult task. Sometimes people smoke because it makes them feel more able to cope with a difficult situation. Perhaps boredom is the most significant: it represents a lack of both something productive to do with one’s time, and also the lack of any particular reason to stay sober. This itself can lead to smoking to cope.
o NOTE: The only time smoking by oneself is okay, in my humble opinion, is as an enhancement smoker. According to both Urban Dictionary and the classic stoner flick Half Baked, an enhancement smoker is defined as:
" A person who smokes cannabis primarily to enhance other experiences (rather than simply for the "high" itself). Such individuals are less likely to enjoy merely smoking and sitting around doing nothing."
An enhancement smoker, therefore, seeks to use the high to their own benefit, whether this means philosophizing, watching movies, or other activities.
• Slippery Slope – However, besides an enhancement smoker, smoking by oneself is often a sign of an emotional attachment to marijuana. Frequency of usage can go from once a day to multiple times a day, all smoked alone. In some cases, even whole paychecks will be put towards a large order of bud to be smoked in one day all by oneself. Quite often buying in such large quantities will make dealing an option. Academically, the grades will begin to fall (if they have not already), but with doses of Riddlin, Adderall or other such prescription ADD drugs, the steady fall will plateau. Often, when life requires sobriety, but a mental addiction has been built up already, these individuals can turn to other substances. Mushrooms are always a favored substitute as drug tests can not pick up their main active ingredients, psilcybin, psilocin, and baeocystin. Proscription pills are also an option, but can be detected by most drug tests.
On being a gateway drug: In today’s modern drug world, the marijuana game is removed from what are typically described as “hard” drugs. Today, the most notorious drugs are cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and prescription pills, not to mention alcohol, the most deadly of all mind-altering drugs. With the exception of alcohol, often because of the illegality of these drugs requires the supplier is to have contacts with the underground world of the illicit drug trade, which more often than not, means having ties to organized crime. Today, a supplier of marijuana can be as simple as a person growing a plant in their closet. Weed as a drug is relatively simple: it’s a plant, so all you really need to grow your own is a knowledge of horticulture and patience. In British Columbia, Canada, it is estimated that 1 in every 100 dwellings is being used to grow marijuana. With growing happening on this scale, people now do not have to resort to criminals to buy drugs. The chain of supply is drastically shortened. Now, a person could be no more than two links away from the original grower, growing it in their basement. This decentralizes the marijuana trade, making it a lot less likely to run into hard drugs.
Of course, the more intense smokers require their dealers to handle larger orders, and if one gets into dealing, then these orders only increase in size and scale. This puts them in a more likely position to encounter these hard drugs, or to know someone who is able to lay their hands on them. Lucky is the stoner who knows somebody who grows massive amounts of weed, for this insulates them from hard drugs.
Speaking physiologically, weed itself does force the user to move onto harder drugs in search of that “first high,” a common reason behind an addiction to crack cocaine. In fact, as a drug, it is the theory of this blogger that each strain of THC has such different characteristics that this keeps a tolerance level low. Add to that the difference such factors such as movement, thought, environment, and company can all have on one’s “high” and this experience can differ dramatically, even from bowl to bowl. With that said, marijuana becomes a gateway drug only due to the fact that one can come in contact with people with, at times significant, ties to the criminal underworld where other illicit drugs can be found.
And so, after months of research, my conclusions are that the amount of marijuana a person smokes can be broken down into different categories. Those categories each can be fairly well defined based on numerous factors, from the number of times smoking to the frequency of use to amounts they buy at a time. Each of these clearly demonstrates a particular characteristic about their marijuana habits. For them, they are merely just taking part in
Kush on Campus: The Stoner Steps.
