To establish a healthy relationship with weed, rules must be set. Without self-restrictions, a line is never drawn, and thus can never be crossed. The drug becomes a crutch for many who use it as a solution to their well-being, leading them to lose the ability to walk without it.
During move-in day, I was asked on three different occasions if I smoked weed. The answer is yes, and I was surprised to see how many others could relate. In my hometown, I could count the number of people whom I knew using the drug on my hands, four of which being my own family members.
My dad jokes about being “self-medicated” with weed to feel happy. My ex-boyfriend had told me at one point, he could not sleep without smoking. Two months after we broke up, he told me he had smoked every day since to feel less guilt. My mom only seemed to enjoy the company of my stepdad once during vacation, when we found a “coffeeshop” in Amsterdam.
These relationships with weed have always made me cautious when I began my own, scared a dependency would form out of my control, as it has for the people I love, or “loved” in the case of my ex. Contrary to the latter, my older sister seemed to have her whole life together while continuously smoking pot.
When I told her that I wanted to try smoking, she insisted I first do it with her. That was the first rule I learned: only smoke with people you feel comfortable with. Now, more than ever, marijuana has become less natural than before, increasing the chances of having a negative response to the drug.
The marijuana landscape has changed drastically in the past years, with increasing strength in strains coupled with the rising popularity of dispensaries. In Ohio, the legalization of weed has made way for even higher THC percentages.
Products sold at dispensaries greatly demonstrate the changing ways of marijuana. Vapes and joints now routinely push 30% THC, with some dispensary concentrates boasting 90-95% THC, as reported by the American Psychological Association.
The high potency of THC can give way to bad reactions and having one with people around who will not ensure your safety should be avoided.
My sister told me to never use the drug when I was upset because feeling better is not always the healthiest choice. This has been formed into my second rule: use weed to enhance your life, not escape it. Everyone wants to be happy, surely, but feeling your negative emotions is paramount to understanding yourself. Emotions must be put in the spotlight to comprehend them, not shaded by a leaf.
Weed may raise your chances of clinical depression or worsen the symptoms of a mental health condition if possessed by the subject who takes it.
Furthermore, the mood induced by the drug is inconsistent with each person, each time, with every type of marijuana. A healthy relationship depends on the stability of the participants; the participants should not depend on others for stability.
The third rule is crucial to college students: do not use marijuana as an activity. With the fast-paced media presence highlighting the most exciting parts of our friends, family and foes' lives, it’s hard to be present during the mundane.
The boring moments in life are normal, but more so needed. Finding what interests or disinterests the cognitive brain alone is the path to self-discovery. Laughing at the same Instagram reel over and over after hitting a blinker on a cart will not be as useful after the fact.
Having a healthy relationship with marijuana starts with creating boundaries; it is important to identify them to enforce them. If these boundaries are not being kept, the integrity of the relationship should be reconsidered. How high a priority are you willing to put on smoking weed?
BudPost is a cannabis opinion column that does not reflect the views of The Post.
