Can We Blame Cannabis for Our Shortcomings?

Is cannabis the culprit in your character flaws?
Is cannabis the culprit in your character flaws? / Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

There are those who believe they have become a better, more functional human because of cannabis. Perhaps fierce drunkards in their youth, the worst of the breed, they ultimately found redemption from the bottle by making the switch to weed. Some may have suffered from debilitating bouts of anxiety – the kind that keeps people from mingling with society and having any fun – but now thanks to marijuana they’re getting jiggy with it, just like the rest of the world.

Although cannabis isn’t necessarily a salvation’s wing for every person under every circumstance, it can provide some relief from certain ills and help the afflicted forge ahead on a virtuous, more productive path.

“I was so desperate that I was drinking Listerine ten years ago, but I got sober, found cannabis and turned my life around,” Melissa, a 38-year-old from Miami, Florida, told The Bluntness. “I have a good job and a place to live. Cannabis helped me make that change.”

Meanwhile others – the miscreants of society, while also crediting weed for their position in life, blame it for their shortcomings. They’ve become abject failures in everything they do besides fucking shit up. They are arguably the biggest turds in the proverbial punch bowl, and they absolutely refuse to take any responsibility for any of it.

These folks want everyone they cross paths with to know that every loss they’ve ever encountered, every emotional beat down, all the heartache, it’s all because they started using cannabis. “Nothing ever good happened to me when I was smoking weed,” a recovering addict named Troy told us. “It’s been hard to bounce back.”

Most cannabis lovers don’t blame weed for their problems

Scour the cannabis advocacy community and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who believes that life took a dump on them because of weed. Most subscribe to the philosophy that marijuana assisted them in getting through the tough times rather than it being the foundation for their challenges.

Even those who feel their lives didn’t turn out worth a damn, still won’t make cannabis the scapegoat. “I don't blame weed for my life,” said Russel, a 46-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska. “I’ve made a lot of bad choices and it has nothing to do with weed. It just has to deal with being stupid.”

This group has accepted that their lives may be total train wrecks, yet, for reasons all their own, they don’t feel it would have turned out any better without cannabis. No way smoking a little weed can hinder a person’s overall growth. Not as long as they have the ability to be honest with themselves and make the necessary tweaks when they start sliding off the rails. Addiction experts agree.

Everyone is responsible for their own choices

Dr. Aaron Weiner, licensed clinical psychologist, tells The Bluntness that everyone is ultimately responsible for their own choices and the consequences of those choices, regardless of the context or circumstances.

“If you're choosing to use a drug (marijuana or otherwise) that you know impairs your judgment, it's up to you to make sure you have appropriate boundaries and safeguards such that you don't harm yourself or others while you're under the influence,” he said.

Interestingly, however, some people actually use their cannabis consumption as an excuse for their social, mental, and financial defects. If you ask them, they were not born with a predilection for unsavory shenanigans, the kind fit for twerps and losers.

They weren’t destined to be unemployed and broke, sitting around a darkened apartment waiting for the cops to show up after stealing a bag of chips from a convenience store. No, they would have been pillars of the community – trusted, giving, and loyal – had it not been for the dastardly scourge of marijuana.

A Florida woman is among these dolts.

She was recently busted for shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue. When police nabbed her, she confessed to the crime. Yet, she proclaimed that they couldn’t hold her accountable for her thieving ways because she was using medicinal cannabis. The perpetrator “stated that she did not realize what she was doing due to using her prescribed marijuana,” according to a police report.

The woman, of course, went to jail.

There’s no doubt this lady was riding a hard line of BS to avoid being thrown in the slammer. Either that, or she was mentally ill. We can’t begin to speculate and won’t. However, she is not alone in this attitude where the refusal to take responsibility for one’s actions is unwavering and absolute.

For these people, everything that happens to them in life – didn’t get the job, didn’t get the girl, didn’t get a chance – someone else is to blame. In their minds, they’ve been plotted against since they popped out of the womb. There might even be some secret society for which the sole purpose of its existence is to prevent them from doing well and leading a happy life. That’s how deep some of these crybabies believe the downtrodden travels. No matter what, it’s never their fault.

But there’s a reason this attitude isn’t acceptable. Everyone, from cannabis users to full blown heroin junkies, is responsible for themselves, their rottenness and idiocy. Nobody gets a free ride for acting like a shithead – committing crimes or just being an asshole – because they were under the influence.

“If marijuana causes chronic problems in your life (such as impairing judgment to the point of not being able to shop in grocery stores without shoplifting), then it's your choice and responsibility to decide whether you want to take steps to change your use pattern,” Dr. Weiner said. “Or if you'd rather continue to use while acknowledging that you may have to make some lifestyle modifications as a result in order to avoid future problems.”

So cut the crap, America. Nobody feels sorry for anyone who can’t handle their weed or manage their life. We are all on the same playing field, regardless of whether you choose to believe it or not.

It’s survival of the fittest out here, and weakness is met with deprivation. It’s eat or be eaten.

While there will assuredly always be people who smoke marijuana and go on to reach their goals and enjoy life, there will also be those lost causes, sad sacks who just can’t seem to get their act together and get out of their way long enough to rise above it and do better.

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