I hate to break it to you...
[Edit: it's best if I expand this comment. The people who currently sell "legal" weed whitewashed illegal operations and coordinated it with lawmakers to put them at the top. Chinese, oddly enough, play a big part at this, since we're on an anti-China bend right now it might be useful to know. This whole legal drug thing... no, it doesn't exist. Anyone thinking otherwise needs to get a wake up call. You're supporting massive drug lords that wear suits and work alongside law enforcement.]
Lots of areas (like here in Canada) have well regulated, legal Cannabis businesses. The product even goes through thorough testing procedures [1]. As far as I can tell, it's a very similar setup to alcohol related businesses.
I would love to see a source on this supposed Chinese involvement. This sounds like some early 1900's opium den stereotyping to me.
People find this surprising, but they've never stopped to ask themselves where did all that weed and infrastructure to grow it suddenly spring up from the moment it was legalized.
So Heineken, big tobacco, folks behind the opioid crisis, Wells Fargo, etc?
Same with the meat packers, the fruit pickers. Same with the people working in all of the factories and shipping plants and driving the trucks. The invisible labor we are all surrounded by every day that touches literally everything I can see right now, aside from the tree outside my window.
And all of the money I spend inevitably trickles upwards to people who are going to use it to do things I consider evil like destroying our natural world for profit.
But! That is not a problem I am going to solve over-night. I can try and tailor my consumption to products that I vet and are hopefully more ethically sourced than alternatives. Even doing this is of questionable utility.
“No ethical consumption under capitalism” and all that.
Do you have more information on this nefarious China-sponsored drug supply-chain?
(you can probably search for better articles, here is one I just found)
I NEVER do it during work or when I have to drive.
I started smoking weed when I was 16. I remember it was New Years day and the cool older kids from the nearby city took a liking to me and offered to smoke with me. We all got high, and it was extremely fun. Still friends with those people today. They all did quite well for themselves.
It was my rebellion growing up in a small town where there wasn't really much to rebel against. I had good parents and a good family. Little did I know my dad was also toking...
Then I went from my small town to the big city for college, and life got really hard. I didn't have the money to pay for weed anymore, and my mental health wasn't great due to all of the stress of college and work, so I stopped for around 6 years.
Then, about 3 years ago, I moved to a state where it as legal, and the first thing I did was buy some weed just to have the fun experience of purchasing it legally. And I smoked it. And I discovered something!
It wasn't just youthful rebellion, or following along with the cool kids, or anything like that. I actually really enjoy the feeling of being high! It makes me feel calm and relaxed.
And that is a good thing! Doing drugs is amoral[0]. There is this puritanical vein through US society that altering your state of mind, and making yourself feel good is a BAD thing. It even extends to coffee and caffeine sometimes.
But altering your state of mind is not inherently wrong! Clearly, it can sometimes be used as a crutch for avoiding other pain in your life. I am sure we have all seen it. But the same can be said of video games, and television, and even exercise when overdone. If it doesn't have any other effect on your life, doing a drug is fine.
- 0: Legal, not funding drug lords. I avoid illegal drugs for this reason.