Deplorable stoners

There is getting stoned, and then, there are stoners. Obviously similar to the difference between those enjoy their tipple and those who are alcoholics, but not entirely similar. Let me try and explain.

I have often noted a strange sense of camaraderie about stoners. No, that's not quite it. It is more like, if I am standing somewhere and smoking a joint, and a stoner happens to come by, (s)he will usually assume that I am a cool chilled out laid back nice friendly dude. I may actually be all of those things, but that is certainly not a fair assumption to make on anyone's part. Stoners don't see a reason why non-smokers don't smoke, or how someone who smokes dope can still be an arsehole. Oh, they may say things from time to time that will sound abrasive towards other stoners, but put them in a room with strangers, where some are stoners and other are not, and see where they gravitate. Its like, the dope takes over many aspects of their personality.

Now I find this sort of behaviour missing among alcohol consumers, and I put that down to two things. One, the nature of intoxication itself. While alcohol is a well known depressant, there exists considerable variety in the effects caused by smoking marijuana or its derivatives, giggles, depression, paranoia, blah blah. Two, alcohol is a legal drug in most places in the world, as opposed to these friendly green plants which have been foolishly associated with many devilish phenomena and hence criminalised.

Without dwelling much on the psychological effects (since they are a highly subjective and personal matter, to say the least) of things, I will talk of the impact that legal status has. I was strangely elated to find in Amsterdam many smokers regarding other smokers with as much wariness as is due towards your regular stranger. I was heartened to see that there is a sizable number of dope smokers who do not assume some kind of unspoken bond with other smokers, supposing them all to be in some sort of a world wide weed smoking community where no one ever steals or wrongs his/her co-smoker.

Stoners will entertain other smokers even if they have nothing much to talk about, simply by dint of the fact that they share the consumption of weed, as if the fact alone were reason enough to call someone your friend and brother, and regard as cool and friendly. I hate, HATE, totally ABHOR the way some retard at some party will suddenly consider me his/her best friend and say stupid senseless things like, "we must be on the same wavelength" simply because I happen to be rolling a joint or some such. What the fuck do you know about my wavelength anyway, you fucking fake junkie?

I was gifted a t-shirt which has the print of a ganja leaf on it, with a caption that reads "keep off the grass". When wearing it and being out and about, I have received comments from people I meet and also from random people on the street about the t-shirt being cool. The common theme is that not one of them bothered to read the words right below the picture. One guy asked me to pose while he photographed it (without my face, how nice of him), another asked me if I could get him one. A guy in the street stopped me, first confirmed if it was a ganja leaf, then got ecstatic at the affirmation and began telling me how he smokes weed, a lot of weed. As I was walking with my friends, a girl in the street some months ago had screamed at least 6-7 times "nice top!" before I figured she was talking to me after she also screamed "hey ponytail!" Why is it cool just because it has a ganja leaf on it?

Someone needs to tell stoners that not everyone who smokes a spliff is like them. I smoke weed, and smoked a lot of it back in the day, but I am not a stoner. If only stoners saw the possibility of this fact existing... Its a bit like what Dave Chappelle said about black people hating niggers.