I did not know what weed was until my sophomore year of high school. At least, I did not know what it looked like. More and more though, I started to realize how naive I was. I feel like a prize fool for thinking that my suburban town had a really bad skunk problem when really we just had a lot of kids who smoked a lot of dope.
Once I got into college, I was amazed by all the green that I was surrounded by, and I’m not just talking about the beautiful trees. The more time I spend in college the more I realize how normal smoking pot is. And it is not just because college kids are always wanted to get faded. There is actually much more to it.
10.) Easy Access
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In studies throughout 1990-1994, it was reported that 1 in 50 college students were using marijuana daily or near-daily. In a 2013 study, that stat drastically shifted to 1 in 20 students. In the time between the two studies, 23 states and the District of Colombia have some form of law that has legalized marijuana use. So naturally, the more access there is to a product, the more likely people are going to use it.
9.) Stress Relief
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A 2008 study carried out by the Associated Press and mtvU stated that 8 in 10 college students admitted to sometimes or frequently experiencing symptoms and feelings of stress. Though this study is seven years old, I can safely say that not much has changed. As a college student myself, I personally experience and hear my fellow students talk about how stressed they can be, especially during intense times in the school year like midterms or finals week. The alleviation and relaxation that many people experience when smoking pot allows college students to chill out a little bit during those times of stress.
8.) Anxiety Reducer
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7.) Choosing Blunts Over Booze Is More Likely
The social life of a college student is one that is consists of more opportunities to go out and get drunk. While some people enjoy constantly drinking, others enjoy going out and having fun without imbibing. Using weed as a replacement for alcohol is a way to still get a little weird on the weekends in college. In fact, it may be the smarter partying choice. Many studies have been conducted to compare the effects of alcohol and marijuana, and which as the more detrimental outcomes. While the U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports over 37,000 annual U.S. deaths from alcohol use alone (meaning incidents influenced by alcohol are not counted in this number) they were unable to report any deaths from marijuana use.
6.) It Gets The Creative Juices Flowing
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This is not just a hippie-myth that smoking pot turns you into a Pink Floyd loving artist. Wired reported on a study in which participants had to think of different words that were related to a concept, and the experimental group (aka the people who toked up before the study) were able to think of a greater range of concepts. Especially nowadays, creativity is vital for just about every area of study, so while some people think pot smokers are lazy, they really can think up new and innovative ideas while under the influence.
5.) Bonding Tactic
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My friends and I always talk about how annoying it is when we go out to a party and have great times with drunk people who we know are going to forget mostly everything the next day. While short-term memory is not necessarily on point when smoking, it definitely is a lot better than when you’re excessively drinking. That being said, sometimes it’s more fun to watch Netflix and get high with your friends instead of going out and taking shots until you all black out.
4.) More Open-Mindedness, More Freedom, More Wisdom
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Our nation is getting more and more progressive with the idea of legalizing marijuana, as I mentioned earlier, so we have become more open-minded to the idea of weed and our involvement with it. College provides us with a prime opportunity to try it out, especially since Mom and Dad are not upstairs and able to smell what’s going on in the basement, We also are more aware that the myths about dying from smoking pot were propaganda our high school health teachers fed us in an attempt to take the “scared straight,” approach.
3.) Curiosity
College is a really great time to explore your
2.) For Sleepy Time
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Us college kids are totally restless at the most inopportune times, and the drowsy effect that weed has can help students get their much needed sleep.
1.) It’s Dope (Pun Intended)
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This is not to say that all the cool kids do it, so everybody should smoke weed. This is simply to say that most people have rather enjoyable experiences when smoking weed when they are in the right environment and with the right people, which encourages them to re-visit it when in similar social situations. So light it up and smoke responsibly.
