Cannabis Culture Vs. the Pot Culture

I had a short conversation via text the other day with a friend about the oddity that is my life right now. How I'm stuck between the Cannabis Culture and the Hippie High.

See I'm a new breed of Pot smoker. I don't call it Pot, and I don't (usually) smoke it. Admittedly I feel a sense of importance to the new Cannabis Culture that is arising. Why? I'm not really sure. I've never grown it so have no helpful tips of the trade. I don't sell it, and so have no secret insider information. I'm no scientist so I can't tell you any groundbreaking new discoveries. Heck! I've only started using in December of 2014. I think it has more to do with the importance one person can make when they stop believing the propaganda and learn something from experience instead. It also has to do with being a woman involved, in a small way, in a new revolution. I've never felt so important actually! (if only Rona Ambrose really knew from experience, perhaps she'd lighten up too and start making a positive difference!)


That conversation I had started like this....
Me: ....the whole stoner culture intrigues me cuz I'm not really part of it. Everything I do is measured and dosed and picked based on relief of symptoms. And done alone. I don't often get the chance to indulge in the freedom of just having a toke and a talk with a friend.

That right there sums up the Cannabis Culture Vs. the Pot Culture


Thankfully my friend calmed my slight paranoia that evening and let me know I did nothing wrong by immediately seeing a simple drive home one evening after work as an appropriate time to pass a joint her way (whew). Navigating this new life is sometimes easy and other times I have no grid for what's right, wrong or otherwise. My Cannabis use is for medicinal reasons. But it's fun to cross that line and just get blasted too. I've had to learn everything I know by myself. Whether it was through Youtube videos or reading articles from HighTimes, or The Stoners Cookbook. I've taught myself how to roll joints, blunts, make butter/oil and what paraphernalia is best, worse, or most useful. I can also discuss the finer points of Cannabis science that has so far exceeded everyones else's limits I know. This is what the new breed of Stoner looks like. Like a 40-something working mother trying to live life to its fullest cuz hiding from it in alcohol, pills or seclusion just weren't working for me anymore.



This is Cannabis use in the selfie culture! Everything done alone. A quick search of Puff Puff Pass in Google images bears no group photos. I have one photo of myself smoking from a pipe, but the full photo won't be seeing the light of this or any other computer. At least not yet, I'm still a closet cannabis user. But I do have rather a lot of photos of the different strains I've bought, blunts I've rolled, the cookies I've made, and the stuff I've bought (many of these photos can be found on my public Facebook page of the same name). All of it done alone. So am I taking pictures to prove I can do it? Maybe, but I tell myself its for my blog. I also do it to educate. I'm not the only Mid 40's woman out there who has just embarked on a new Cannabis way of life. If I can do it, so can anyone!

It is a strange thing being on one side of the coin but having grown up "seeing" another side, the old culture. The Hippie Pot culture. What some refer to as Stoner culture. Where a group of people gather, pass a few joints around, share some peace, ideas, and free love. Really, they were doing exactly what still needs to happen today. Sharing life together in real and meaningful ways. Having community. Something sorely lacking in todays fast paced selfie culture. But is it dying out? Is the Stoner Culture being transformed along with our laws, regulations and knowledge of the Cannabis plant? Will any of the original Pot Culture hang on through this transition and stay firmly fixed in spite of the new solitary places we find ourselves? I guess that's really up to us to determine. I for one do not want to lose the good old days that I have still yet to experience, but would rather see it merged with the new.