It’s trendy these days to post fake news articles and pseudo-scientific studies saying that marijuana is good for your health. It’s not. For every possible medical use, there is a better drug that can do it. Weed doesn’t cure cancer. Just because it’s natural, doesn’t mean it’s meant to be smoked. If you think so, go ahead and smoke some poison ivy.
Just because marijuana doesn’t kill brain cells when used sparingly, doesn’t mean it’s harmless to the brain. You don’t need an academic study to prove that it’s bad for you. Just observe the people who smoke it. Or observe yourself if you smoke it. Or both. There’s a reason we have the word “pothead”. In case you haven’t noticed, they don’t seem capable of carrying a conversation about anything else.
If you are under the age of twenty-five, you should avoid smoking weed, unless you don’t care if your frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop. Pot may not kill brain cells, but it does slow their growth. On average, the frontal lobe of your brain finishes its development at the age of twenty-five. Each time you smoke, it takes an average of three days for your brain growth to return to its normal speed. So if you smoke once a week, your brain will only grow about half as much as it would if you stayed sober.
If you have to smoke weed in order to have fun, that just means that you’re not a fun person. But just because you’re boring, doesn’t mean you always have to be boring. Instead of taking drugs to amuse yourself, try improving your personality. It takes a lot more effort, but at least it will lead to a happier life.
Contrary to popular belief, weed does not open your mind. It closes it, but leads you to believe that it’s open. It strengthens your biases and kills your ability to explore new ideas and lifestyles. It traps you in the same routines and the same boring conversations. You might think you’re the smartest person in the world when you’re high, but the stuff you say is probably pretty stupid.
People like to say that weed is not a gateway drug. But it’s extremely rare to find an abuser of hard drugs who didn’t start out smoking weed. This isn’t to say that smoking weed will automatically get you onto heroin. But it does make you less afraid to try it.