I am, in the perspective of some people, a pothead. I use marijuana regularly (in the evenings before I go to sleep) and have been doing so for a while now.
A pothead is a term that refers to someone who uses marijuana regularly, and the term certainly has a negative connotation attached to it. When we hear someone being described as a pothead, we usually associate them with ideas of failure, figure they’re a bit of a loser, and judge them without knowing them personally to any extent.
Marijuana has been legal here in Canada since 2017, yet despite the years that have passed since its legalization, marijuana and those who use it are still met with a lot of unjustified stigma.
I can’t help but compare the stigma affiliated with marijuana use to that of alcohol and the complete absence of stigma in a generalized sense. Alcohol is still stigmatized to an extent, but not nearly to the same lengths marijuana is, and both marijuana and alcohol are substances that can alter the mental and physical abilities of those who use them. If both have the ability to impact our bodies in a mental and physical sense, why is marijuana stigmatized to a much more severe degree than alcohol?
If a person has one alcoholic beverage a day, no one thinks twice about it. Some people may even consider this to be normal, or average, and the term alcoholic would not be used to describe this person. If a person uses marijuana once a day, although, like myself, they’re deemed a pothead.
Do we acknowledge the double standard that exists in the context of stigma when we compare alcohol to marijuana?
I don’t know why there is such an inconsistency in how alcohol is viewed versus marijuana, but I think it might have to do with the fact that marijuana is labelled as a drug, whereas alcohol is not. Both have the ability to alter our bodies and minds, but one is met with significant judgment compared to the other.
Photo by manish panghal on Unsplash
ontheedgeofeverything 