At my age it's pretty hard to meet and make friends with someone who has not done drugs. So I have friends who have/currently use(d) drugs, but only recreationally.  None of my current friends are addicts or regular users.  I don't do it, I have never done it, and I don't see myself ever doing it, even if certain ones were made legal.  I have my reasons.   I wish I could find other people who have never done drugs but the only one I knew died in an accident this summer.

Skippy was someone who found ways to get his thrills.  None of them involved something that could put his legal status in trouble.  He was the wildest, most free-living person I ever knew.  He lived life on the edge in ways that the drug users I have known dreamed of living.  I can't live like Skip because I have a calendar dictated career.  If I ever leave teaching, I aim to live like Skip.

He also treated everyone the same regardless of whether they lived clean like him or not.  I wish I could say the same for the drug users I have known.  After over 40 years of living, here are some observations and the attendant frustrations:

• The heroin users I have known did so due to some trauma earlier in life.  One used because he was sexually abused when a boy.  They never told me I was missing out or tried to get me to use. They saw it as a horrible thing they were stuck in. 
• The people I have known who used acid or other such stuff barely ever talked about it with me.  I didn't do it and they did and that was it.  We didn't socialize together at the types of places where they would be tripping and I was not.  I was, however, the one to call if someone was having a bad trip.  I was the one to lean on.  I was not a loser for not doing what they did.
• The people I knew/know who smoke weed are the ones who have treated me the worst.  They tell me I don't know what I am missing.  I am a loser.  I am closed minded.  I am a prude.  I am not fun.  I have been dumped by friends for not doing what they do.  Those who smoke weekly or daily have treated me like I am disposable.  I have been used for rides and favours.  I have been treated as if I was indispensable and loved until I was no longer useful.   I have found them to be flakey.  They might stress how much they want to be with you and hang out but when it comes right down to it, I don't see them unless they need something from me.  I have found the regular smokers in my life to be selfish and ignorant of the needs of those they claim to call friends.  

I have been told to be open minded.  I have been called too picky when it comes to befriending people, pushing away people who are not like me.  So I told myself to welcome everyone into my life.  However, this has led to disappointment.  I started to notice a pattern.  The people hubby tried to maintain friendships with flaked off.  The people I tried being friends with used me.  One thing in common - daily or weekly smokers.  I guess if I smoked, I have them as friends for life.  But I don't think friendship should be based on drug use.  I guess I am just curious about why all those in my life who smoke so regularly are so self-centered.  

Unlike users of other drugs, the smokers never cared why I don't use drugs.  Even if they let me explain, I would get "Not even once?  You are missing out."  Or "You will when it's legal."  Then they work on convincing me of what I should do.  I am not working on convincing them not to do something, so as a fellow adult they should stop trying to tell me what to do.

Here's the thing, my home life was such that I feared being caught doing something bad in ways that most kids did not have to deal with.  As a female, I realized what could happen when you lose control.  I never wanted to be in a situation where I was not in control.  There were enough things about my life I could not control.  Why put myself in a situation where I did not have control?  I also started to notice some differences in who used drugs, who got caught by police, and who got into trouble with the law for that use.  In the end, it looked like a fairly racist system to me.  And the data backs me up.  The use of drugs is nearly evenly split between white people and minorities.  When you look at who is in prison for non-violent drug offences (possession and/or use) the data skews frighteningly heavily towards minorities.  I saw this growing up in high school.  Why in the world would I want to take part in such a racist system?  

None of this has any bearing on my opinions of the medical or ecological uses of marijuana or hemp. As a person who has been dealing with depression since fourth grade, I understand that there could be benefits to my health.  An ex-boyfriend's mother had advanced MS.  She would have been in much better health if she could have medical marijuana according to evidence.  However medical applications are different.  Using hemp for cloth, paper, and such is different.  There are many different forms of the plant. There are many different ways to use it.

As I find more and more people are smoking regularly nowadays, I guess I have to get used to flakiness or being a loner.  Life just keeps running in circles.