On pleasure, respectability, and the parts of cannabis culture worth protecting.
The other night I got high with a few friends. Not to unlock my third eye, crush a deadline, or biohack my nervous system into a state of tantric productivity. We weren’t chasing enlightenment or insight or growth.
We just wanted to laugh. To unwind. To play DnD and stop carrying the day around like a sack of wet concrete.
We sat around my living room passing a joint built like a power forward and talking about absolutely nothing of consequence—the kind of conversation that floats, drifts, wanders, and somehow becomes the best part of your week.
And in the middle of that dumb buzz, I had this tiny intrusive thought:
Is this still allowed?
Not legally, per se, but culturally. I started to wonder whether joy alone was still a valid reason to light up. Because within modern cannabis culture, you can feel a growing pressure to justify your high. To prove you’re doing something responsible with it.
Smarter. Healthier. More productive.
More adult.
The carefree, fun-time vibe is quietly shifting toward the idea that cannabis must be functional to be legitimate. That you need a reason more noble than “I enjoy feeling alive for a minute.”
You can hear it in dispensaries now. Ask what’s good, and you get outcomes. Disclaimers.
Focus.Sleep.Recovery.Regulation.
Meanwhile, no one looks down on the sun for giving us vitamin D and energy. No one shames rosemary for its calming effects. But light up a joint because you want to smile? To loosen the death grip your shoulders have on your neck?
Suddenly, you’re kind of childish.
Come on. Community? Laughter? That moment when your jaw finally unclenches? That’s medicine. Those things do real …
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Author: Lucas Indrikovs / High Times
