I've used cannabis for close to 50 years, starting when I was about 12 years old. For me it's been helpful in reducing stress caused by other's bullshit, and I

I've used cannabis for close to 50 years, starting when I was about 12 years old. For me it's been helpful in reducing stress caused by other's bullshit, and I have been subjected to far too much of that most all my life. Over those years I've had friends and family give me a shit ton of guff about it. One of the things I've heard a lot is "it makes you stupid" but I was always pretty far ahead of most of my classmates in school and I taught myself how to code in the 90s and have been doing that since. In the 80s I took a lot of heat over using cannibis, and most of it came from cocaine and alcohol users. According to drinkers I was a "drug user" and they were not. The coke users kept going with the "it makes you stupid" insult, and they loved that insult. For most of those years I was committing a crime and risking getting fired from a job and tossed into prison if I got caught possessing it, but I could've been whiskey drunk at home from Friday after work to Sunday night and never have had to worry about that. I could've been on any prescription drugs a doctor signed off on and abusing the shit out of them and not had to worry about that. And I've known a lot of people that have been. All of that is meant to add perspective when I say that after 50 years of experience in observing this issue I believe more than anything else it is societal pressure that causes the anxiety associated with usage. The characterization of the "dumb" and "lazy" pot smoker is still how we envision users. We might like to think we don't respond to that, but most people do because it is so deeply entrenched in us.