Legalizing Marijuana and Addiction

Ive been watching a lot of documentaries lately.  Mainly mini Youtube documentaries by the Vice channel but also on occasion, others on Netflix.

Documentaries are one of those easy learning experiences; you dont have to research, you dont have to put work in, just like a sitcom, you sit back and turn your mind off.  Well, at least in the case of a documentary, there is a chance to have some after thought. Or the hope of the afterthought, as just as people point their finger at some famous modern day documentarians, ie Michael Moore, that only a biased opinion is brought forth via the video screen.  So, I would hope anyone making a documentary to show the their views, as unbiased as they may first setout to be, is to create the ultimate goal as we as human beings on this planet educate ourselves to see all viewpoints and create our own thoughts based on that continuing education and thoughtful knowledge.

So, back to me, amd away from that philosophical bs.

The documentaries I have stumbled upon, which Youtube and Netflix essentially chose for me, and for all, and i so sheepishly followed, focused around two issues which don't seem to intertwine in commonplace society, but i see as very intertwining, Addiction and Legalizing Marijuana.

I find it funny, and already pointed by one of my herders, that legalizing personal use of marijuana is being trojan horsed through medical marijuana where people actually have shown great benefit from, most common known, being cancer patients on chemo.  I can't say where i stand on that issue as i have not done thorough education on the enhancing effects, but the limited number of documentaries on the subject i have seen have certainly been convincing of the positives,  but that, again, is their ploy.

Its hard to see and understand if this is actually the root cause for the change in society or if the truth is that it is only a guise for increasing the availability for recreational use.  But a look at any of these short movies reveals a 'hippy' culture so to think of the advocates' true intentions as being 'medically' necessary makes it hard to believe, especially from the uber judgemental state we all live in.

But that is where the cross roads of addiction come into play.  Most addiction documentaries being about the obvious, with a mix of new drugs, being spice, which so ironically bases itself, at least in the New York Times article, in Syracuse, and the Vice documentary, in Manchester, which are both key locations for the large financial company I am employed with, a fact that I still find ironic, but one that is for anothet day and another blog to discuss, understand, and hopefully research, because that is the truer answer outside of my rambling and randomness.

A side note, I just found out my brother has been using so probly this push to understand the addict has pushed me to these viewings but a more general sense of where our society is, that it rests between a point of continual unrest as evidenced by this subsect in society.

But why does legalizing marijuana have anything to do with addiction?

Ive always felt akin to those with drug problems, and really all marginalized persons, as I've always kept my own personal addiction to this debated substance, which I stand on the opposite end of legalizing, in a very hypocritical way.

Society, this world, this life, these people see marijuana as solely a recreational positive, and maybe not a positive, but no so much a negative, and most certainly not an addicting substance, which with any mind altering substance, even, and especially cigarettes, is addictive to the right person.

Its sad to see such a push for it, even with the conservative systems fighting it, without the talk of addiction.  To have two seperate conversations is counter intuitive as the issue should be intertwined but to those who would have that conversation, they see it as a positive lifestyle, an addiction to marijuana.  When such a glossing over of what is really occuring happens, again, in a guise of recreation or happiness or self medicating.

Where we are headed as a society is new territory, as is encouraged in humanity as we 'evolve', to not put too much emphasis on that word, but it is a path where mjch continuing discussion must take place.  One where issues cannot be hidden but must be brought to the foreground for all, even those with everything neat and together, to discuss.  Or lest we divolve.