Blunt Force Trauma
Has anyone ever tried to reason with a marijuana addict about
the destructive nature of marijuana? Wow it can be akin to
something like watching the movie "Must Love Dogs", long and
frustrating.
Although denial exists to an extent in most addictions it seems
to be somewhat of a religious right for the marijuana addict.
You don't really run into too many meth addicts that will defend
meth. Most marijuana enthusiasts have spent a great deal of time
convincing themselves of the many benefits of marijuana use. My
personal favorite is that it is "all natural", or that God made
it and so he meant for us to use it. No joke I get that quite a
bit and it always makes me laugh. The bird flue is also all
natural and is of the most basic structures found in nature, yet
few people are looking to contract it.
Another favorite marijuana rationalization is that they are not
hurting anyone. If this all sounds familiar it is probably
because all marijuana addicts attended the same seminar called,
"Relieving Those Pesky Pangs of Conscience."
One thing that any addict needs to understand is how their
conscience works. Conscience is a good thing and we all, I mean,
most of us have one. Let me ask a question. What is the most
solved crime in the United States? Any guesses, if you said
murder you would be correct. An interesting bit of trivia but
more important is why murder is the most solved crime in the US.
No it is not because the Police spare no expense or resource in
solving a murder, although this is true in most cases. The
reason murders are solved is because of conscience. Murder
apparently can be very offensive to the human conscience and
when a murder is involved people more readily confess any
information pertaining to the murder. The hardened criminal may
have a conscience immune to robbery, rape etc. but the taking of
a life sometimes does not sit well.
Although your conscience may cause you some psychological
torment, be glad you have it. If you didn't have a conscience
you would be in the same boat as the serial killer, the only
thing keeping the serial killer from committing atrocities is
fear of being punished.
An extreme example to be sure, but what do we do when we are
faced with that uncomfortable feeling that tells us that what we
are doing is wrong. Of course we immediately begin to
rationalize what we have done, we make excuses for our behavior.
The other thing people do, the psychologically healthy thing to
do is to admit you made a mistake and decide to not repeat it.
Let me explain the danger of rationalizing away your guilt. All
of us have a moral code of ethics that is indelibly etched on
our consciousness, although the moral code may very from person
to person we all have one and we on a daily basis compare moral
choices we make to our own moral code. The trouble begins when
we make choices that do not comply with our personal moral code.
When we do this we are forced to ether re-write the code to
exempt the previously offensive conduct or we have to feel bad
and admit that our actions were bad according to our own
measure.
If we choose to rationalize our actions and re-write the code
then we have opened the door to question a myriad of our ethical
standards. I have conversed with many methamphetamine addicts
who tell me that meth is the Devils drug. They call it the
Devil's drug because they continually do things that are
contrary to their moral code. Their code is in such a state of
constant reformation they don't really know what they are or are
not capable of, and this is a scary place to live.
More often than not the code is not changed drastically
overnight. For example, let me relate a story I was told by an
associate. This individual growing up had some very strong moral
values concerning illicit drugs. He was very much against using
drugs of any kind. I am not sure of the circumstances but this
individual was offered a puff of a marijuana joint. He was told
that if he took one puff he could at least say that he had tried
it and if did not ever smoke it again that was fine. Well he did
take one puff however once he crossed that line each subsequent
line became much easier to cross until in a relatively short
period of time he had moved on to try cocaine and heroine.
When you tell yourself that you will just try it this once you
are saying much more than that. You are also telling yourself,
"I have no hard and fast rule where drugs are concerned I have
changed my stance from never partaking of any drug too. I will
take it on a case by case basis, or in other words maybe I will
maybe I won't."
Now that we understand why we justify lets look at the effects
that marijuana produces. There are some great studies out there
about how marijuana tends to widen the gaps between the synapses
in the brain and causes short term and long-term cognitive
degeneration. But I am not going to discuss the physical damage
caused by marijuana nor will I further belabor my point about it
being a gateway vehicle to other drugs, because I believe there
is something intimately more sinister about marijuana use.
Marijuana is a social and psychological retardant. When I was
teaching general outpatient substance abuse classes I would
inevitably have one of the marijuana addicts pipe up and inform
the class that they did not belong in the class because they
only smoked marijuana. I had this happen quit frequently so I
usually followed the same procedure. I would ask the person how
old they were. Then I would tell them I bet I can guess how old
you were when you started smoking marijuana. Inevitably they
would accept the challenge. I could always guess within a year.
When they would ask me how I knew I would respond thusly.
(Question) "Where do you live?" (Answer) "My parent's house."
(Question) "How did you get here?" (Answer), "I rode my bike."
(Question) "What is your favorite pastime?" (Answer) "Playing
x-box." (Question) "How old are you again?" (Answer) "I am 35."
Then I would say no you are 15 the same age you were when you
started smoking weed. .
The catastrophic symptoms of marijuana use in my opinion
although severe are not the physical symptoms. The marijuana
addict's social and mental development grinds to a halt shortly
after the addiction begins and although time passes this now 35
year old marijuana user instead of being concerned with adult
issues is functioning on the level of a 15 year old. If you
question this just find you a 35 to 45 year old pothead and ask
him/her what their goals are, what they hope to accomplish and
what they consider to be their greatest accomplishments.
The Bible Dictionary in the King James Version of the Bible
defines damnation as a condition devoid of progress or an
inability to move on. Marijuana is in more ways than one a
gateway drug and in a very real sense it is the gateway to hell.