In case you didn't know, I live in Germany where cannabis was legalized on April 1st. As it's the thing with such legislative changes, it drives conversation throughout all of society. I heard a lot of people say lots of things about it and, although I might be a bit late to the party, I thought it might be time to share my opinion on the topic.
Here's my hot take. Ready? ... It's not that big of a deal y'all. The fact that the issue is so controversially debated indicates a larger defect in our society than cannabis could ever cause to it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that cannabis is harmless. If you read my comics, I hope you understand that they're not exactly an advertisement for cannabis. Still, I'm trying my best to not play into the stigma that cannabis users have always been facing. There were a lot of cannabis users in Germany, even before it was legalized. And if you look at who these people are, you'll notice that they are regular parts of society. Stigma is a society's way of inhibiting unwanted behavior and these people do nothing to warrant that.
Still, cannabis has effects on people's lives. I don't mean the rare side effects the drug can have on individuals with certain predispositions which are a whole other topic. I also don't mean the big problem of cannabis' effect on the underdeveloped brains of young people, which is a very important issue to keep in mind. I think that those issues can be handled by education and responsible use. What I mean is the recurring patterns one can observe on individuals after prolonged use: Cannabis users are usually not people with very high ambitions.
I don't know if this is actually an effect of the drug itself or if people with such personality traits are more attracted to the drug. I don't think science knows either. It's a difficult subject to conduct studies on. It's probably a bit of both. What I'm pretty certain of, though, is that it's true. I don't have any studies to back this up either, but I think that even cannabis users know deep down, that it is true. Cannabis is not a drug for those striving for the top 1%. And I believe that here lies the root of the controversy.
You see, our globalized world is fueled by the constant struggle for growth and improvement. It does not matter if you are doing well, it only matters if you are doing *better*. You can get up every morning, go to work, get paid, and buy yourself dinner every day. In the eyes of capitalism, you're still worthless. You're just an asset. But just like stocks, real estate, art or even money, assets have become essentially worthless. The only thing that holds value is the growth of these assets. You want your assets to grow faster than others. And this is a constant struggle. It's the true reason why people have to work themselves to death, why we go to war and why we worship technology like a new religion.
Stereotypical cannabis users don't fit into this picture. Cannabis is a drug of peace. That's why "peace" is a common nickname for it. It's for those who are satisfied with what they have, those who do not want to harm anyone and those who just want to be left alone. You can criticize this as an unfair stereotype, but even if it were completely true: is this really that bad? What kind of society are we living in, if we don't accept people like this? What kind of dystopia are we on the brink of?
So, here we are. Cannabis is legal now. Will this solve all our problems? No. Will this set our society on a trajectory towards collapse? Also no. Personally, I don't think it's going to have a big effect on society at all. Cannabis users existed before. The only thing that changed is that we stopped shunning them, at least from a legal perspective. It's one small step towards accepting them in our society, which I think we should. But for this, we need to also get rid of the stigma.
