Drug Culture

During the class activity on drugs some groups categorized heroin as a prescription drug- of course no one actually knew it was heroin they just had a pharmacological report to look at. Yes, the heroin roots do stem back to older modern medicine when opium was all the rage but in today's society heroin is undoubtedly super taboo.

But, while some "hardcore" drugs carry a taboo around them there are of course "cool" drugs- the coolest of course being marijuana.

Since migrant workers carried their weed over the border nearly a century back the attitude toward pot has changed dramatically. We went from media bashing to media love. Movies love weed: Bongwater, Accross the Universe, Harold and Kumar, Cheech and Chong, The Big Lebowski, Grandma's Boy, Half Baked, and dozens more portray pot as a-ok. Overall cinema has fallen in love with drugs. There is in fact a whole genre of movies called "drug films" which usually portray washed up drug addicts that even in all of their misery seem---hip.

In today's society its become hip to smoke marijuana so it's no surprise we're all toking up. Everybody is head over heels with weed.

The government has started to go a little more easy on marijuana in some states, medicinal weed seems to be the best cure for ailments cancer patients face after chemo, marijuana has its own magazines and websites, Ron Paul made high school teenagers happy with his ideas to legalize....

But if we legalize weed will it still remain so hip?

Our other popular legalized drugs have currently faced a little less lovin'. You can't smoke your cigarettes anywhere, if you smoke you're gonna die, and in general Americans are trying hard to make smoking a taboo. Cigarettes just don't carry the classy sophistication they used to in old cinema. We've made cigarette smoking into something that's more trashy and a lot less hip.

And then came alcohol...we're programmed to understand that drinking will lead to alcoholism, if you drink and drive you will be executed, and only lame jocks drink 'til they drop. The media likes to portray alcoholics as wifebeaters, wash ups, and definitely not hipsters. I mean the guys in beerfest weren't hip by any means.

So if we legalize weed how cool will it be?

I think some of the romaticism will leave. Where's the ten o clock phone call to your dealer? The shady pick up? The pot smoking giggle you share with your friends at midnight in your elementary school parking lot?

Well that will all be gone as soon as you can get your half sack at BP.

We're head over heels with marijuana. From the big screen to some kids basement- pot has been glorified.

You can't overdose unless you're accidentally smoking crack, it's totally curing alzheimers....it really is just all the rage.

And it's definitely a force to be reckoned with.

2008

I'm sure it's been hard to be a teenager in any generation.

Regardless of what decade you're in you have to deal with the hormones and emotions that come with teenagerdom.

But I feel there's a lot more that we have on our plates in 2008. We don't really have too much freedom to live the lives we imagine ourselves having.

I can't get a decent paying job and I legally can't do a lot of things I might want to. I can't even stay out past 11 P.M. on a weekend according to the state of Illinois.

How can I start to integrate into society if i'm not allowed to be in society past 11 o clock?

This inability to integrate into society leaves teenagers floating around aimlessly.

I can't vote, I can't smoke, I can't drink, I can't drive too late, I can't make decent money, and yet i'm expected to be mature and polite and nice and contribute to a society that holds me down?

We're maturing earlier and being held down for longer.

It's nice to have everything be provided for me but what am I going to do when it's time for me to provide for myself if I can't start trying now?

This lack of purpose in today's society is what really leads to all kinds of social problems that parents are afraid of.

Smoking pot, getting drunk, having sex...

It's what a lot of kids turn to doing because there's nothing really else to do when the school day is done.