The Chronicle has published a first person story by "Tom Quincey," a humanaties Ph.D. student who credits his success to all the weed he has smoked while in graduate school. For example, there was this one time when he wrote some notes for a paper while he was high, and then his professor said it could be published! He goes on for several paragraphs about how weed is healthy when compared to cocaine, heroin, binge drinking, and blah blah blah... but the best part is when he rationalizes his liberal guilt away:Of course I've often felt troubled, politically, by my marijuana use: Here I am in the comfort of my apartment while unfortunate people are incarcerated for selling it to me. That's a form of hypocrisy, and it's led me to donate money to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml). I admit that's not much, but it's something.So he donates money to legalization advocates with zero political power. But once again... it's not like he's doing cocaine or something!!
By contrast, it's hard to imagine making a political virtue out of snorting coke. My impression is that habitual users simply don't care that they're indirectly wreaking havoc in Mexico and Colombia.Sigh. Like many people, I smoked weed in college and view it as mostly harmless, but I hate when people blather on about how drugs make them creative and productive. I also get annoyed when people rationalize the societal consequences of their behavior with lame and futile actions like donating to NORML.
And here is some news for our pseudonymous hero: Your weed may not come from Columbia, but it probably does come from the city where you are funding a culture of gangs, crime, and poverty that is supported by the sale of all kinds of illegal drugs, including marijuana. I'm not saying you should stop smoking weed -- whatever makes you happy -- but stop pretending it makes you better than other people. Self-righteous stoners are the most obnoxious kind.
