We’ve all heard of discrimination against blacks, women, Jews during the Holocaust. There are certain sorts of discrimination we ignore like against red head (gingers), or the blonde jokes. We find them funny and don’t even care. Along with these, though a bit worst, we also oversee discrimination against weed users.

I’m not saying it’s alright to use weed but, maybe it isn’t as bad as we assume it is,. Maybe the cause isn’t rebellious, “hell bound” teens as they are sometimes called. Maybe the teens that use weed aren’t demonic, beats, and bad influences as you might think. Maybe those teens are only kids, like us all, only difference being they are in the search of support, happiness and an overall escape from life. Weed becomes their last resource when the people around them do not provide with what they are in desperate need of. In which case, makes us the cause of the never ending use of weed.

When asked why they began using weed, both past users and current users used different phrases to say the same thing; Since the people around them didn’t supply, they sought for happiness and support in Mary- Jane aka weed.

We will call the two current users “OJ” and “Stephan”. OJ was asked why she doesn’t quit and her response was, “I do it because it’s really fun, life becomes more entertaining. Helps me forget about a lot of things, including if I’m in pain…”

From this answer alone, weed appears to be like an escape from life thus possible misery for OJ. The question is, shouldn’t that personal escape be provided by us?

Stephan was asked the same question. His answer was outraged and with a tone of, “Are you kidding?” he didn’t even think about it before saying it when he answered, “God, no!”

Thus I proceed to ask him why he does marijuana and he told me with assurance that weed keeps him on track, relaxed, happy, and passing his classes.

For Stephan, weed is an escape like it is for OJ but also, something to lean on that gives him strength and confidence. Again the question is, shouldn’t people like Stephan be counting on us for that happiness and support and not be counting on weed to receive it?

The other two teens I interviewed are past users. We will refer to them as “Sophie” and “Donny”.

When Sophie was asked why she began the use of weed, Sophie answered that she was at a party and life wasn’t great for her at the time so, when weed was offered she thought, “Why not?”, and went ahead and tried it. While ‘high’, she said she felt relaxed, and happy and was having loads of fun so, she continued the use of marijuana. I then asked her what inspired her to quit. Sophie divulged that she panicked when her mom found out. When her mom declared she was going to help Sophie quit, Sophie decided to try. For the next few weeks, Sophie’s mom kept Sophie home and tested her for THC among other things. The things Sophie commented her mom did while helping her quit, are described as supportive and loving. This states that when Sophie got the attention she needed and wanted, she no longer needed marijuana to obtain it and thus, she quit.

Finally, we have Donny. Donny quit when his dad went to rehab and became preoccupied with having Donny quit too. By Donny’s recollections, it appears he then received a lot of attention from his mom and dad when he was thinking about quitting. And so, like Sophie, when Donny received that love and attention he needed, he stopped feeling alone and thus, no longer needed weed and finally quit.

From the information gathered, I came to the culmination that a teen will begin the use of weed if they are either in lack of attention or love or, are going through rough times in life and are seeking support and an escape to their misery. Since the people around them, whether it is family or friends, fail to bestow them with the support, attention, or love, some teens will go to weed seeking the comfort they are in need of.

The true solution to the never ending use of weed is for us, the family and friends, to pay more attention and see when someone is screaming for help and instead ignoring, we go and supply them with that comfort before they find it in marijuana.