The Taboo Behind Marijuana Usage

        Just to start this off, here's the definition of "taboo" according to my trusty dictionary, Google.

taboo: a social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing. 

We'll be concentrating on the "thing" in this blog post, starting off with the social custom.

I hate how marijuana has this stigma around it. (IT WON'T HURT YOU. JUST HAVE SOME.) I mean, I hate how sometimes, things have to be socially accepted to be right. It's like eating with your mouth open. The only reason people say it's rude is because other people say it's rude and all of this is because one person a long time ago had a weak stomach and said eating with your mouth open is disgusting. And everyone listened to them, and that was the birth of not being able to eat with your mouth open. I hate the terms "socially acceptable".

        You know what is "socially acceptable"? Alcohol. Even though it's more harmful. People haven't criminalized alcohol, even though it can kill someone. No one really cares when people say they went out to drink for fun. That's because as a society, we accept it. Alcohol has been around for quite some time, ever since hard liquor didn't exist and there was only fermented grape juice (also known as wine and apparently it's really sophisticated). Well, I'm sure it's really sophisticated that alcohol kills 88,000 people per year (1) whereas marijuana killed ZERO. But yes, it is socially acceptable to go drink.

        Sigh. Don't we all love how the world works?

        Social stigma is unnatural. Cavemen didn't have social customs and rules. They could eat with their mouths open. They could have all the pot in the world if they wanted it/could find it/I'm running out of ideas/let's move on to my next point.

     

 What about religious customs? My personal definition of religion is just to not be a jerk and give out some good to the world. Many people, however, want to follow their religion by the book. If that includes not even giving a chance to something that might help them, then so be it.

        I skimmed through a bunch of Bible verses online. The Bible's views on marijuana, even though it doesn't say marijuana or weed or cannabis or pot or whatever literally. are actually pretty cool. It says to stay sober but to not shame God's work. EXACTLY! STAY SOBER IF YOU DON'T LIKE CANNABIS BUT DON'T GO AGAINST IT OR PEOPLE WHO USE IT. MORE FOR THEM. CASE CLOSED.

I wish. But this is a blog post. I have to keep going. I hate elephants.

        The Quran is against consumption of marijuana because it labels it as a drug and drugs are bad. It's also pretty negative about gambling and alcohol because those two, along with weed/drug (according to the Quran) bring the devil. I don't know if I find that a bit better. At least they're much more explicitly against alcohol than the Bible.

         Long story short, there are a bunch of things people say and people have said and that are written somewhere that say something is bad. I believe that people should look at scientific proof and
not what their friends say or what is collectively believed. The taboo behind marijuana usage is just the same as any other taboo: it originated from fear of the unknown and so people simply decided to ignore it. If you don't ignore it, it would be a bad thing. I think that people that go against what they're supposed to conform to are very strong. Just like the person who said that eating with your mouth open is rude started a chain reaction and had everyone believing their thing, the person who said that eating with your mouth open is OK starts the same chain reaction. Only that time, they have to go against the current and fix everyone up. That's what makes them strong.

This blog post was very hard to write. I could barely find pictures. You're welcome.    

Sources:

(1) http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-and-statistic