We read an article named “Becoming a Marihuana User” written by Howard Becker in 1950’s during this week. In his article, he illustrates how a person becomes a marijuana user or a pot smoker, which in my view equals to how addictive a behavior can become. But before that, we learn about something with culture but more specific which we call it subculture. According to the article, people who consist in this subculture are usually marijuana smokers. They may come from different backgrounds but they share something in common, which means they smoke marijuana, that is to say, they may belong to different cultures while they make a culture of their own, a subculture.
In such situation, smoking pot is socially constructed as an important part of this subculture and it is made what it is to the specific subjects. Members of this subculture play the roles as subjects. There are a lot of pot smokers who were interviewed to provide some information inside the culture, who act as “insider guides” to help newcomers to construct the way for him to get into this subculture.
To get into this subculture, which means to become a marihuana user, the first thing one needs to know is how to smoke it. Second, he or she has to be taught what a “high” feels like and how to get high. And then, one has to enjoy the feeling of being high and share it with his or her “Friends”, which stands for a “positive experience”. The choices here are really obvious: Love it or drop it.
It reminds me that there was once upon a time one of my friend got into smoking and I was astonished about that because that is evil to smoke from my view during that time. I cannot understand it at all until someday he told me that what he enjoyed is not the smoking things but the people and the atmosphere. Just like what it is said in the article, maybe the marijuana is not addictive, what is addictive to the person is the people he or she smokes with and the feeling of sharing it.
One more thing that strikes me during my reading is that I easily take a position against marijuana smokers without even noticing it by myself. Just like what I said before, I think smoking is evil because of what I was taught during childhood. I am against marijuana use since I think it is similar with drug use or smoking things and that is a position taking underground. Maybe it always happens without any precaution.
I personally am against pot smoking. I think it's an unhealthy and unnecessary behavior - that's what I was taught, and looking at it from as objective of a view as possible, I still choose this view.
ReplyDeleteI will note, however, that the crowd of pot users at my high school was an extremely tight-knit group. You knew who they were, they knew who they were, and they were inseparable. In fact, most have remained close friends even two years into college. For whatever reason, they use pot (and alcohol, for that matter) as a way of reinforcing their friendships.
In addition, I would like to note that many parents of the pot users didn't seem to express much concern over their children's actions. My parents didn't smoke and neither did I, but their parents partied and so their kids do. My parents restricted my activities in order to keep me healthy and safe, but some of these users have been allowed to do as they please since an early age. None of them want to give up the feeling of freedom. The carefree attitude must be an addicting one, because these users have become friends for life it seems.