All members said underground in unison as if they knew what TBC was going to say . I am assuming they had discussions about mainstream versus underground music prior to me asking about it. For the group, conformity to the establishment, whether that be music, dress, drugs, or any other lifestyle sets one apart as a poser or a conformist. Thus, a dramaturgical hierarchy developed within the group as each member tried to conform the least to common norms and practices such as listening to mainstream music or participating in mainstream culture.One goal of this dissertation was to use a unique group of cannabis users and sellers to examine the commonly held assumptions and scholarly theories about drug use and drug users. The goal was to create a shift in our understanding of drug use, which today is still trapped in overly moralistic and pejorative assumptions about the lives, perceptions, histories and motivations of drug users. Our understanding of substance use is still largely informed by models that seek to pathologize drugs and their users and to either rehabilitate or incarcerate them. As Geoffrey Hunt explains, “In contemporary Western industrialized societies, our current approach to drugs is influenced by both a medical and a criminal vision that emerged a little more than a century ago. The concepts of addiction and ‘drug control’ have imposed themselves as the unquestionable truths of drug issues.” . Hunt goes on to explain how these two perspectives create a type of mental blinder that make it difficult to comprehend or frame the issue of drug usage in any way other than a medical or criminal problem in need of regulation and/or extermination. Moreover, cannabis drying racks commercial this has led to a pathologizing of the individual user and the social environment that the individual exists within while simultaneously ignoring social, cultural and spiritual functions the consciousness altering substance may serve.

In contrast, substance use scholars recognize that consciousness-altering substances are used and enjoyed by every known society, including our own, in some form or another. Paleontologist believe that humans may have cultivated opium and cannabis with the rise of agriculture over 10,000 years ago . And, new theories suggest that the production and cultivation of cereals, specifically rye in ancient Mesopotamia was for the purpose of manufacturing beer, and not bread, as previously theorized . Others speculate that animals used drugs before humans , and thus, substance use predates human history. Likewise, Andrew Weil argues that the desire to induce altered states of consciousness is an innate biological human drive, on par with sex and hunger. Considering the widespread use of consciousness altering substances throughout human history and perhaps even prehuman history, it is necessary to understand such uses from a more culturally relativistic perspective and to understand why these substances have such universal appeal. Despite this, the belief that drug use serves particular cultural and social functions for groups is conspicuously absent from the sociological and criminology literature. Reviewing the literature on drug use, except for a few notable cases , I found it difficult to find criminological or sociological literature on drug usage that did not entrap the issue within the medical or crime control perspective. I frequently found myself rummaging through cultural anthropologic literature in order to find literature that considers substance use from a cultural perspective. This dissertation sought to fill in this gap in the literature on substance use. Instead of taking a criminologic and/or medical perspective on drug use, I sought to understand the behavior from a cultural and socially relativistic standpoint. However, much to my chagrin, the use of these individuals neither completely refuted nor completely confirmed either the criminologic and/or medical literature or my own assumptions. This chapter will discuss the major medical and criminologic theories of drugs to see how they fit, or do not fit this group of cannabis users. The end of the chapter will discuss my observations of the group and propose a new theory to create a cultural and social understanding of drug use.

The classical or medical model of substance use frames the issue as defined by the appearance of withdrawal symptoms. One of the first sociological attempts to explain drug use was proposed by Lindesmith , although today it is regarded as belonging to the addiction model. Lindesmith countered popular notions of drug abuse at the time by suggesting that drug addiction was not the product of psychopaths’ desire to escape life, but resulted from the desire to avoid the pain of withdrawal symptoms. This perspective of drug abuse dominated up until the 1970’s . Although his theory helped to counter the more pejorative psychopath label ascribed to drug addicts by many psychologists, it did not explain why individuals used the drugs in the first place. Lindesmith discussed it as prescribed by doctors yet did not adequately address other factors that lead one person and not another, to use opiates. Likewise, his theory failed to explain the high proportion of users that took drugs on a regular enough basis for some to label that use “abuse.” Furthermore, the substance I am studying, marijuana, has relatively mild physical-withdrawal symptoms, and only for chronic long-time users. These mild withdrawal symptoms include restlessness, irritability, mild agitation and insomnia . Yet, the withdrawal symptoms are usually too miniscule and irrelevant to be termed addiction in the classical sense as proposed by Lindesmith, likewise, the theory fails to explain onset and the process that accompanies it. Lindesmith’s classical addiction model proposed that addiction was defined as withdrawal symptoms when drug using behavior, primarily opiates were removed. This failure led to the idea of psychological or behavioral dependence. This led to a psychological explanation of drug use termed the reinforcement model. Two types of reinforcement model explain drug use: positive and negative. As Bejerot explains, “The pleasure mechanism may…give rise to a strong fixation on repetitive behavior.” . In its most simplistic form, this perspective states that getting high is pleasurable and consequently, gets repeated by the user. The negative reinforcement, similar to the addiction model suggests users take substances for the purpose of avoiding physical or emotional pain. In the classic model, this pain is associated with withdrawal, in the negative reinforcement model, any type of pain can lead someone to seek out substances, such as the desire to drink if one is depressed.

As indicated earlier, both of these models fail to explain onset. And although the positive reinforcement model is particularly useful for understanding the substance I am studying, marijuana, it is telling that positive reinforcement is framed in medical jargon that seeks to situate use within an existing medical or mentally pathological framework instead of conceptualizing use as a desire for pleasure in itself. Many theories abound about cannabis’ addicting properties. Some suggest it has little to no physically addicting properties, while others suggest it has the ability to create dependence and affect an individual’s life . Most users are recreational users that use in a social context with friends. However, heavy users have the ability to develop mild physical and strong mental dependence. Researchers believe that over stimulation of the endocannabinoid system leads to changes in the structure of the brain that can lead to addiction. Similar to the Kings explanation of a balance to the world, researchers believe that the more cannabis one uses the more cannabis they will need to feel the same effect. Physical addiction is typically associated with withdrawal symptoms. The typical withdrawal symptoms of a cannabis user is irritability, mood and sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, cravings, vertical grow racks restlessness and other types of physical discomfort . My own personal experience with cannabis prior to starting the study lead me to believe that claims of marijuana addiction were exaggerated at best and a downright propagandist lie at worst. It was not until I saw addiction first hand did I see how powerful it could be for some people. The Kings for example, would smoke on average about once every hour. Likewise, Dorian explained to me that he frequently had to wake in the middle of the night to smoke cannabis because if he did not smoke he would be too restless to go back to sleep. High-C and TBC, would frequently smoke on their way to do drop offs for the collective and the other volunteers at the collective would frequently go out back and smoke every couple of hours despite ordinances preventing on-site use at many collectives. Indeed, Dorian once told me he could never work the typical nine-to-five because he smoked too much and the one job he had at Kmart he always showed up lit and would go to his car on his breaks to smoke cannabis. Furthermore, he claimed working a nine to-five kept him trapped in the system as nothing more than a corporate minion.One of the biggest concerns of marijuana opponents is the question of motivation, or lack thereof amongst cannabis smokers. As the American Council for Drug Education suggest, cannabis leads to, “A loss of ambition and initiation, a withdrawal from customary activity, and a regression to a simpler kind of life.” . Many consider cannabis as leading to a life of indolence, free from the cares of the world, and that cannabis users typically stop caring about their appearances.

The question of anti-motivation is relevant for many reasons. For one, it is a common conservative talking point that seeks to demonize a plant that has little to no dangers associated with it besides possible mild addiction. Two, the idea is promulgated through popular culture and seems to be blindly accepted as fact by both cannabis opponents and users alike. And three, it is indicative of the conservative in the box thinking indicative of society today. The common image perpetuated in the media of cannabis users, particularly espoused by groups such as the Partnership for a Drug Free America, is one where a productive, intelligent and highly motivated teenager uses cannabis, rebels, and retreats to a life of indolence and sloth. The user typically becomes a school dropout, working for minimum wage if working at all, all the while, living in their parents’ basement playing video games and eating junk food. Ironically, this is neither entirely truthful nor a complete lie. In order to understand the effect cannabis can have on and individual and his or her motivation one must understand the nature of drugs and drug usage. There are a variety of factors that can and does affect the high an individual user may experience, things such as route of administration, cannabis type and strength, an individual’s expectations and predispositions and the set and setting. Perhaps the most significant of these is the type of cannabis and the type of strain and the differing chemicals coumpounds within each strain. Based upon the type of strain, a veteran user typically wants a certain feeling and experience. Users typically use this to help them calm down, ease nervousness and restlessness, manage physical pain and help them to sleep. In this context, many cannabis users who consume indica dominant strains during the day can experience fatigue and anti-motivation. I know many users who consume indica dominant cannabis throughout the day and these individual typically resort to a life of idleness and apathy. Dorian told me a story about Jenna, a cannabis user he met at a collective. He told me the cannabis helped to relax her when she is around other people. Unfortunately, he also told me it makes her extremely tired and she ends up sleeping a lot. He told me she slept until 4pm each day. He said, she looked like she had slept all day, she didn’t wear makeup and seemed to have shown up to the collective in the exact same clothes she wore to sleep. Natty told me he ran in to many users at the Corner that fit this description, many people did not shave and looked unkempt. This is perhaps one of the worst aspects of cannabis use, especially for medical cannabis patients. Many patients need the pain relief and anti-nausea effect cannabis provides, but experience the cannabis as working during, and temporarily after the hallucination. Many wish they could get the relief without the high associated with the plant. Cannabis plants high in CBD and low in the psychoactive THC may help with this. CBD is a cannabinoid that mellows the mood and calms nerves while curbing the hallucinogenic effects of THC .