The legalization of marijuana is finally out of the mud with Reefer Madness defeated, yet few people discuss the true wonder of the “drug” – the introspection.

We’ve all heard enough on the physical health effects of ganja. Man has been keeping this plant around for centuries, for a reason.

I’m going to describe the incredible usefulness of smoking marijuana to induce powerful introspection, known only to the experienced user, and ineffable to those not bold enough to defy the “law.”

The brain seems to have the ability to compartmentalize thoughts. Distributing the work if you will. In doing so, power can be dedicated in isolation, hurdling the thinker either deeper into their mind, or toward sensory perception.

The amateur smoker will generally not understand this because the initial euphoria upon discovering the typically described “high” is just a shit load of fun at first. Laughter, smiling, profound independent realizations, etc. Over time, tolerance weakens this euphoria, but not so much the ability to efficiently divert power to isolated yet simultaneous thoughts.

An old man is walking down the street.

He stops, and you have a brief conversation. His age is revealed to be 85. After a few minutes, you part ways.

The conditioned sober brain generally moves on, or considers the old man for a few moments and returns back to the general observation of surroundings.

Here the stoned brain, known better to the experienced smoker, would analyze the encounter, which quite immediately induced introspection, a train off the rails. An ineffable experience.

You begin to consider what it would be like to be 85 years old. Whether you are currently 50, or 30, or 17, the mind leaps off the diving board into a now explorable ocean of inner reflection. What might it be like to exist for 85 odd years?

Ever drive down a long winding road, and suddenly return from a daydream? It seems impossible that you maintained control of the vehicle, but you did.

The enlightened stoner encounters this frequently. It can be highly beneficial to the evolution of a particular thought, but dangerous in the wrong circumstance. Inducing this while driving a car is poor, less so because of neglect, but more so because your brain is dedicating focus and power to an inner thought. This can be a lot of power, and it means you are not paying attention to subtle details on the road.

Imagine being a 14 -year-old, smoking poor-quality weed grown by who the hell knows.

The adolescent brain is being tossed back and forth between introspection and reality, brought on by a poorly cultivated product. This is far less than ideal for today’s teenager, someone with little life experience. Dealing with stress under these conditions would be quite difficult. The need for a mentor becomes apparent, as the mind becomes increasingly agitated by the lack of understanding and awareness about what is occurring in the mind.

The stereotype of the mannequin stoner on the couch, motionless and seemingly brain dead, is another example of potential misunderstanding. This person, though seemingly fried (and let’s be serious, sometimes maybe they really are brain melted) may actually be lost in deep, deep introspective thought.

Consider how the sober person or amateur smoker may not know how to interpret this behavior, though an experienced pothead, often deep in the forest of their own mind, understands that this person is simply….thinking….a lot.

If the “weed” is embraced by society, its use could be taught, and you could create a legion of people who know an extra trick, a shortcut to a useful idea. And boy, do we need great ideas these days.

Soon marijuana will be fully legal to purchase, but what we really need is a mission to understand its usefulness on a cultural level, as an idea-generating catalyst. This is ancient wisdom of the past that has been pushed to the fringe.

We should embrace marijuana-induced introspection.

If you aren’t a stoner, someone will need to explain this to you.

Smoke one and read some other blogs: