Teen Wisdom

Prompted by “Colorado Rebrands Anti-Pot Campaign for Kids”: http://www.hightimes.com/read/colorado-rebrands-anti-pot-campaign-kids

Many (many) billions of precious taxpayer dollars have been spent (and many non-violent lives have been harmed) for decades to mainly keep kids from illicit drugs by way of scaremongering (i.e. “send the right message to children”), while research results and common sense are contained to the contrary within the following clip.

In a news release touting the campaign, the Health Department said that its research showed that teens “want credible information to make their own health decisions and don’t respond to `preachy’ messages or scare tactics.”

Instead of arrogantly sending the “right” message to children via sanctioned thuggery, perhaps “community leaders” should have maturely listened first — and still should — given the many other drugs (and other activities) that match such teen wisdom.

Teens are at the age of independence. If parents say no, then teens will naturally head towards yes. But the control freaks working hard to run our world to their liking (the real guilty party when it comes to ample unhealthy stress pressed upon way too many victims in society to spawn all sorts of abusive, including horribly violent, results) continue to benefit from pitifully negating that basic truth.

What also bothered me was this bit…

Colorado launched a rebranding effort Thursday that seeks to keep people under 21 away from pot. The “What’s Next” campaign aims to send the message that marijuana can keep youths from achieving their full potential.

The campaign shows kids being active and reminds them that their brains aren’t fully developed until they’re 25. The ads say that pot use can make it harder for them to pass a test, land a job, or pass the exam for a driver’s license.

25? What conclusive science demonstrates that threshold logically rendering the idea of legality at 21 ridiculous? Maturity and health are really not a numbers game, and they certainly cannot be simply defined due to the overwhelming complexity of health (including overwhelmingly complex environmental factors impacting health).

That health naturally includes the process of maturity — a process that occurs at any age due to at least one ‘me to you’ life experience, or one that never occurs due to the absence of that experience. While I feel fairly safe guessing there are even senior citizens who selfishly live their entire lives as immature ‘me!’ types, there are children whom are naturally compelled to mature into ‘you’ types — e.g. those who lost one or both parents and have to help compensate for that challenging loss for survival.

Excessive rigidity in our one-size-fits-all society (including that in “modern” medicine) naturally forms unhealthy stress against anyone not naturally conforming to that “righteous path”.

A ridiculous example for crystal-clear clarity, imagine if society insisted that you pass a militaristic special forces test to be treated with respect throughout adulthood (or suffer the consequences of being persecuted otherwise). The vast majority of us would fail, while those passing the test rule our world. The damage horribly pressed upon society by such an onerous test would be enormous, and that’s the true basis for drug (and any other form of) abuse — misfitting experience (not activity discrimination).

“Teach them that marijuana use is not something to build an identity around,” that campaign suggests.

Teach them (and everyone else) the whole truth.

It has only been scientifically suggested (via junk science obviously scientifically leaving out critical factors such as strain differential, intake amount, and at least usually historically intake method) that “heavy use” and abuse “may” (or “can”) cause harm.

When cannabis is used right, there’s no proven problem (and there’s apparently a health benefit) — and that’s at least based upon many (many) millions of people harmlessly using cannabis for thousands of years.

Some people have and will use cannabis often, and they have and will live productive lives (perhaps including a life of professional cannabis strain recommendations — experience is the best teacher), because of the beneficial stress management properties of this highly evolved plant that’s now even far more rapidly evolving due to human relations (i.e cannabis has effectively tapped into our technological and reasoning skills — so really not “dope”).

Tommy Chong (among many other brilliant people) exemplifies that truth, so I leave you with the following snippet from my Respect Cannabis informational roots.

An iconic example of cannabis culture strength is Tommy Chong. Playing the quintessential stereotypical “loser” pothead in the classic “Cheech & Chong” comedy duo, among his popular experiences, Mr. Chong survived prostate cancer (“On July 15, 2012 Chong tweeted that the hemp oil treatment he’d been using to cure his cancer was effective and that he is ‘99% cancer free.'”) and nine months of prison time (abhorrently sent there merely for his family connection to selling glass pipes – “Chong agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute drug paraphernalia in exchange for non-prosecution of his wife, Shelby, and his son, Paris.”) to eventually end up on the American mainstream program “Dancing with the Stars”, where he impressively reached the semi-final round at the age of 76 (crushing the age record in the process, despite – if not logically due in part to – his proudly confessed “stoner” status).

About Spirit Wave

I am an honest freak (or reasonably responsibly balanced "misfit", if you prefer) of an artist working and resting to best carefully contribute towards helping society. Too many people abuse reasoning (e.g. 'partial truth = whole truth' scam), while I exercise reason to explore and express whole truth without any conflict-of-interest -- all within a sometimes offbeat style of psychedelic artistry.