Trying to overcome a prejudice against marijuana smokers. Tips?

I'm very sorry that you experienced so much abuse.

Bullying has forever hurt me and changed me as a person. I have anger issues I still can't 100% control.

I can understand how you would associate this. I would also hope though that you can just as easily empathize with some of them. One of the members of this community was imprisoned for possession. She's trans and was incarcerated in a men's facility. I hope you can understand how traumatic this is. Like you, some users of marijuana suffer trauma.

This is an association I never had. My experiences of people who were marijuana users were universally characterized by their being compassionate, intelligent people. Now, I have used marijuana three times, and I did not like the feeling, so I fail to understand the appeal.

But I think that being able to direct one's very legitimate anger at the correct targets is necessary if you're going to be a useful actor in the world.

 

I have a similar thing. I find it disgusting because of bad experience

 

For me having prejudice is okay. We all have our own opinion on things. However how those prejudices make you act matters.

I like to think that those I have prejudice against, like people with drinking habit or ones using drugs, like strangers in my land. I first let them in my country, then in my city, then to my street and so on... Yeah people can do similar thing but they don't do it on similar way/effect.

No matter what, every person deserve to be observed and get to known so you can find if your prejudice is well earned or you were just mean without reason.

Tho' this is me. I don't like to close doors behind me or leave bad impression on people's memories. Maybe that might look like hypocrisy but life is too short to make anyone unhappy or unwanted.

 

Try remembering that nothing that grows naturally is inherently bad. (That includes people, by the way.)

People can, however, make awfully bad decisions...that doesn't make them bad as a person...but it does mean they can hurt us. But we all operate within the set of limitations life has thrown us. If someone hurts you, it's because they were hurting worse (and sometimes because they don't know better)...doesn't excuse it; absolutely not...but understanding begins with that realization, and that understanding mitigates the damage they can do to us.

Your prejudice is one of your limitations, handed to you through your background. Your desire to overcome that prejudice is your wedge with which to overcome it. Learn about marijuana, learn about its effects, and learn about the breadth of the kinds of people who use it and for what. And learn compassion for your oppressors (entirely aside from their use of pot). You'll slowly find your judgments changing.

 

Take some, and see how it goes.

 

hundreds of millions of people smoke weed. they can't all be shitheads.

i guarantee all of those "cool" bullies were straight too, right? are all straight people bad? no? ..... see what i did there?

 

I think one of the problems I personally have with marijuana smokers (and really, drug users in general) is that they try to enforce it on people.
And they are obsessed with it (because they are most likely addicted).

Sorry to leech off OPs thread

 

I know more assholes that drink caffeine, than I do assholes who smoke marijuana. However, since marijuana is illegal (in many places), there's a heavy emphasis on the negatives.

The assholes that happen to smoke marijuana, are usually more vocal about it. Most of these happen to be fairly young, and think it's 'cool to rebel'. I've dealt with these individuals, a lot, in my dealing days, but they only make up a small fraction of marijuana users. They're just a lot louder than the rest, so, they get all the attention.

You don't judge all black individuals, based on a few thugs, do you? You don't judge all white individuals, based on the Ku Klux Klan, do you? You don't judge all religious folks, based on the extreme bigots, do you? You just hear about, and see more of, the negative.

The heaviest clients that I sold to, were middle-aged and, if you just glanced at them, wouldn't expect them to smoke. I used to sell to nurses, mechanics, teachers, and even military, among other demographics. I was always surprised, by who came through the doors.

I smoke marijuana, personally. I doubt anybody would say I'm an idiot, or that I go out of my way to make people smoke it. To be honest, the less heads on a blunt, means more for me, LOL! But seriously, I tend to break pot-smoking stereotypes, and the anti-marijuana crowds HATE me for it.

Anybody who does anything "to be cool", as opposed for their own reasons, isn't living life right. They're not living for themselves, but instead for others. That saddens, and sometimes irritates, me.

 

Yeah, all of the 'cool' kids in my school are total pricks to the weedy nerds that play pokemon at lunch like me.... I doubt any lf the Do drugs seeming that it's england and they're 12... Anyways, most stereotypes exist for a reason...

 

Compare the number of people trying to "enforce" marijuana use (some lame-assed bullies in some schools) to those trying to enforce non-use (the majority of US States), and you'll see which side has the bigger issue with trying to push their beliefs on others.

Also, marijuana is not an addictive drug...so any obsession doesn't arise from addiction...maybe their obsession is comparable to obsession with sex: it feels good. Just a thought there.