These are the effects of marijuana:
http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pot/.....fects.-Lya.htm

Practically, it costs a small amount of money, and being 'impaired' makes schoolwork or work challenging.

It's worth deciding whether it's something you'd ever use or not based-on that much to start with.

The rest of the negative effects come from the stigma surrounding it: There's a Puritan concept that using any drugs at all will drag you placidly into a downward spiral, that you have little control over, and will never recover from. This created a 'choose your friends' attitude, but consider the implications of the stigma on a person . . .

'Druggies' hang around in cool groups because they're marginalized by stigmas. They have trouble finding jobs, being taken seriously, and trusted. The way people see druggies only slightly has to do with the effects of the drugs they use.

Here I ask that you mentally fill in the rest of my essay with your own recollections of what people have told you about drugs.

The downward spiral idea is abstractly true when you ignore willpower, while the only real negative consequences are ^these ones; marijuana isn't actually addictive, other drugs are if you spiral downwards.

So: decide how much of the way you relate to drugs is based on stigma, fear, and insecurities, then decide how that should affect your stance on drugs then druggies.

A good thing to read into would be how differently you perceived your friends when you found out they use drugs, and a good thing to contrast it with would be the differences in the way people perceive you when they learn you are homosexual.

I did not expect you to go into such detail, but thank you! Reading this could affect my opinion a lot.

I think that I won't mind much. Although I don't agree with the decision, it was theirs to make. I will try not to think about them any less (or, too much less).

I am going to think about that last sentence for the next couple of days, I think. Thanks.

Cool. I dunno why I suddenly became so impassioned though. Probably because I'm not practicing or doing schoolwork. Anyways, I havn't used drugs at all so far.

If they smoke it's their choice :P I don't smoke pot, but I know a lot of people who do, and it doesn't make them less of a person. Marijuana is portrayed so negatively by the media because it makes people realize how pointless everything they do is lol At least that's how Bill Hicks saw it, and it's very similar to how I see it too.

However, it's awesome that you're doing so much with music :D That's really awesome! If you make good connections now, then you'll be able to pull in some money from that later on in life.

That makes a lot of sense. But I'm happy with the life I have right now. (:

Thanks about the music and stuff. I like to spend a lot of my time doing cool music-related things. Joining choir this year was a big expansion to that and I really like it (when people don't dick around in class, but that's choir for you, haha).

It's better not to smoke XP

Everyone dicks around in every class lol I should have done more music related things in high school XP Oh well, now I have to pay hefty sums of money to learn about it in college XD

Haha, nice. xP How is that going, anyways?

It's really awesome, but there's a lot of work lol I'm exhausted a lot D:

Yeah, I suppose. I'm not sure if I'm excited for college life or not! @.@

You should be lol It's a lot better than high school

You think? I like high school a lot. o: But I guess college gives you more liberties to do what you want.

I know dude; I'm living it XD High school was fun, but in college you get to do things for yourself and do what you want.

DO SOMETHING CRAZY

WOO!

i agree with Dabs a bit lol, but simple way of putting it:
Stage 1. Normal life = fun
Stage 2. Life + marijuana = exciting
Stage 3. Normal life = no longer so fun

and to add to aaron roo's, that (above) is where the downward spiral comes from, you wantnto try new things and see what it's like.

Although the chouce is yours, I advise against.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I don't think I need drugs to make my life any more better. "High on life!" Overused saying but relates to the topic at hand. (:

"FUTURE:"

What do you think you'll probably do so far?

Oh, you just reminded me of something else I was going to put into the journal, but oh well; here goes.

I initially wanted to go in for Composition but lately I've decided that that would be terribly difficult and unrealistic, so I'm going to try to get in on either a Music Performance or General Music major. I'd also like to do a little Music Theatre.

The cool thing is that as a general music major at a music school, you can gravitate towards anything you like. Even a normal career in something other than music.

That's a good point. I think that I will like that freedom. I still have time to switch around I guess, too, since like 2349D823% of people switch their major I guess.

Every so often I'm overcome by an intense desire to switch my major. I'm becoming a big fan of Sexual Diversity Studies.

That's a cool major, I think. I can't think of a single job related to that, though.

My goal would be to get into a graduate school, for something more saleable.

Alright, that sounds pretty cool. C: Never give up the arts, though!!