First of all, I know that this blog post is late. I figured I might as well post it anyway; it'd be a learning experience and probably good practice for the final. In my defense, I was out of town spending time with my family, which includes my pot-head brother, which actually helped me write this blog post.
My subject position is that of a "pothead". We spent a lot of time in the beginning of the semester discussing marijuana and the culture that surrounds it. Our discussions always left me thinking about all of the people that I know, whether it be people I'm very close to or people I am simply acquainted with, who regularly smoke pot. Then I thought about the people I know who do not. Tied into things we read and talked about in class, I started thinking about the pot-smoking culture. I have quite a few siblings. One of them, admittedly, likes to smoke. I have another sibling who probably doesn't even know what pot is. If he ever were to smoke, he probably wouldn't even know how to react. He is so engaged in his own culture, which is so very different from anyone else I know, that he doesn't even get the jokes on T.V. or in movies when they reference a side-effect of smoking pot, such as getting "the munchies". He is deaf, (and I'm not saying that deaf people don't smoke pot, because I'm sure there are some out there who do) and his deaf culture is first and foremost the one he associates with. He calls his deaf friends his brothers and sisters, and has a connection with them I can't even imagine.
My pot-smoking brother associates himself with the pot-smoking culture and everything that surrounds it- the "munchies", saying "dude", listening to Bob Marley, things like that. He's proud of this culture.
The specific issue within the pot-smoking culture is the assumption that smoking weed on a regular basis causes people to lose motivation and drive to succeed. My parents chastise my brother daily about his habits. I am definitely not one to defend him, because, in my experiences with people I used to be very close to, this assumption has proven itself true time and time again. However, in the case of my brother, he is proving it very wrong. He is still in school and doing very well, he has a job and he lives on his own, paying rent and taking care of a dog. While I wish I could say that my brother is a deadbeat pothead who does nothing all day, like Seth Rogen's character in "Knocked Up", he is surprising all of us.
In order for us (people who don't regularly smoke pot) to understand why this assumption is wrong, we need to work on our portrayal of people who smoke weed in the media. Marijuana is turning into something that will probably be a widely acceptable form of medication, therapy, and relaxation in the near future. It's already being prescribed for cancer and AIDS patients, as well as people suffering from glaucoma. There is research being done about using marijuana for people with ADHD as well, replacing Adderall or Ritalin. Our portrayals of "potheads" in the media are that they are lazy, broke, and unmotivated.