Do you live in a place where weed is legal? Here are 7 reasons why you're among the luckiest people on earth.
If you live in an area where cannabis is still illegal, make sure you know that there are many people who feel your pain. There are people who, just like you, can only dream of walking into a dispensary and picking their perfect bud or block of hash out of a display window and going home to light up.
If, on the other hand, you happen to live in a legal state in the US or anywhere else where weed is allowed, here are 7 reasons why you’re the envy of so many weed smokers and medicinal users around the globe.
So here we go:
1. YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH DEALERS
“Have you ever dealt with a drug dealer? It’s terrible, it’s weird, it’s awkward.”
Dale Denton couldn’t have said it any better: Dealing with drug dealers sucks. Most of the time they’re unreliable, and you (the consumer) have to chase them just to get your hands on a few grams of some anonymous bud.
In most cases, drug dealers don’t carry a variety of strains. And even if they do, there’s no real way of knowing if what they’re selling you is legit (which we’ll talk about in more detail later). Plus, encounters with drug dealers are generally weird and uncomfortable, regardless of whether you’ve been buying from the same person for a long time.
On top of that many dealers carry more varieties of drugs which will trigger some people to buy other stuff that they were not interested in before. "Hey, do you want some cocaine too? Incredible quality, low price..."
2. YOU MIGHT GET BUSTED
Getting busted sucks. Big time. Hence, people living in areas where weed is still illegal usually have to be pretty secretive about where and when they decide to light up.
In fact, in most parts of the world, you don’t even have to be caught consuming weed to get in trouble with the law. Simply being in possession of weed or weed-related paraphernalia is enough to catch you some heat in most parts of the world.
The amount of heat you get for cannabis-related crimes depends on where you live. In some places, you might just cop a friendly warning from an officer, or possibly a fine. In some places, however, you might find yourself going to court, drowning in fines, and even attending drug abuse seminars/classes. Worse yet, you can end up in jail for possession/consumption in some parts of the world!
3. THE WEED IS ANONYMOUS
If you’re a true weed connoisseur, you’ll hate living in places where weed is illegal. That’s because you never really know what you’re buying in illegal areas.
Forget about getting your hands on some OG Kush, Blue Dream, or Amnesia Haze in these regions. Most of the time, you’re buying whatever your bud guy/girl has on deck at the time, which could be anything.
Sure, they might tell you that you’re buying some proper Northern Lights, but there’s no real telling if that’s true. When you buy weed illegally, you can really just inspect it for obvious signs that it’s not terrible and then hope for the best.
4. THERE’S NO VARIETY
Ever stood in a dispensary or legal weed shop wondering whether to get some White Widow, OG bubble hash, or maybe an edible? Well, if you have, consider yourself lucky. In illegal areas, there’s no variety when it comes to buying cannabis products.
Forget about choosing between an indica or sativa, or learning anything about the effects of what you’re buying.
If you’re looking for concentrates or edibles, things get even more difficult. In most illegal areas, things like dabs or edibles are extremely hard to come by. And when you do find them, there’s no real telling who produced them and how.
5. YOU HAVE NO CHOICE ABOUT WHAT GOES ON WITH YOUR BODY
This is arguably one of the most frustrating aspects of living in a place where cannabis is illegal. As a grown adult, one should be able to make conscious, informed decisions about what goes on in one’s body.
Regardless of your stance on weed, those people who want to consume cannabis should be able to do so legally and without prejudice. After all, people are able to buy countless amounts of alcohol and cigarettes in almost all countries across the world, despite the obvious health risks associated with smoking and drinking.
The same should go for weed. Science shows that tobacco and alcohol kill far more people every year than cannabis. In fact, there’s plenty of research that suggests the health risks associated with smoking cannabis are less severe than smoking tobacco.
As such, any adult wanting to consume cannabis recreationally (for whatever reason) should be able to buy legal, regulated weed from a licensed retailer, just like they can buy tobacco or alcohol.
6. MEDICINAL USERS ARE LEFT OUT ON THE STREET
The scientific study of cannabis is getting more refined every day. By now, we know that cannabis and the compounds within it have powerful medical properties which can help with the treatment and prevention of a wide variety of symptoms and conditions.
If you use cannabis medicinally, living in an illegal area is a real headache. That’s because there is literally no system in place to help you access your medicine in a safe, controlled, and reliable way.
In fact, the systems in place are actually designed to make it harder to access cannabis and punish you for doing so. So, rather than walking into a dispensary with your prescription or ID and buying exactly what you need from a friendly budtender, you’re left with meeting some guy/gal in a parking lot somewhere and handed a plastic baggie.
Should you get caught, regardless of whether you use THC to fight chronic pain or CBD to control your child’s seizures, you’re a criminal in the eyes of the law and could be punished as they see fit. Furthermore, people of color are at a much higher risk of being incarcerated for cannabis-related “crimes.”
7. GROWING IS A HEADACHE
Trying to grow weed in an area where it’s illegal SUCKS. Forget about buying clones or seeds from a registered seedbank, grow shop, or dispensary. In illegal areas, getting your hands on the right genetics for a great harvest is a real headache.
If you live in an illegal area, buying clones is usually out of the question, unless you know someone who has a decent mother plant and is willing to sell/give you clone. Hence, you’re usually left buying seeds (which are still illegal in most countries), which is enough of a hassle on its own.
First, you’ll have to find a seedbank online willing to send to your area. If you manage that, you’ll then have to place your order and hope for the best; maybe they’ll get there, maybe they won’t. And if they do, you’ll still be left with the paranoia that someone knows what came in your mail and is waiting to bust you red-handed in the middle of your grow.
If you don’t have the option of buying seeds online, your only other option for growing is hoping for a seed in your next batch of weed and trying your luck that way. But remember, you’ll have no idea what you’re getting. Oh, cultivating is also illegal and usually punishable by harsher penalties than possessing or consuming cannabis.
