to elaborate, the other day i was visiting a college which has a bit of a reputation, as many colleges do, for having a lot of weed. and i mentioned one of my concerns for attending, which was the fact that if i inhale marijuana secondhand smoke, i have an asthma attack and physically can’t breathe. and i mentioned this to a couple prospective students and i both times got the reaction “it’s ok; you can just use edibles!” and i didn’t really say this at the time, but the fact is, i don’t want to. i don’t want to interact with weed at all in college, and—at least at my high school—that’s considered strange. and i honest-to-god believe that is majorly fucked up.
and here’s the thing. even expressing this sentiment is hard. because when i try to talk about the consequences of doing weed (yeah believe it or not there are some) or even my reasons for not wanting to do weed, people assume i believe myself to be morally better than someone who does do weed, and i don’t. i don’t feel superior to anyone, especially not for a reason as stupid as that. the thing is, i don’t want to use my asthma as an excuse for not wanting to vape, but i feel like i have to. i don’t want to use my asthma as an excuse for not wanting to smoke, but i feel like i have to. and i hate this aspect of the culture i’m in. i hate that i have to defend the position of “i don’t think eighteen-year-olds should smoke weed.” i hate that it’s considered normal—even cool—to consistently put recreational drugs in your body from ages 13-24.
