Pot-Heads

In Howard Becker’s Becoming a Marijuana User, Becker explains, through interviews of 50 users, the effects of smoking pot and how it is then perceived by the user. One of the very first things I felt he tried to make clear was that smoking pot is really less of a drug and more of a social construction instead. From the interview, Becker asserts that users don’t continue their use of it because of some sort of addiction but more so because it is a “recreational” thing to do. It becomes a pleasurable thing to do and a feeling that can come and go throughout time. Smoking pot is a social construct as it is just something that the users do socially. It’s not due to any qualities the drug itself possesses but instead just being with others. It is also a social construct as even the simplest part of smoking it has to be learned. These people talked about using it for the first time and how their first experience might not have been pleasurable, was actually down right terrifying to them, but they learned to enjoy it after being taught by friends and just gaining more knowledge that came through their experiences. Users have to learn how to smoke it, what its effects are supposed to be, and then how to recognize those effects. Based off of this reading, as a culture it sounds like we think far too poorly of pot and its users. The position that most people who have had no interactions with pot take is just learned from our government. Our government has deemed pot to be illegal and so now we see it as just something the sad, irresponsible, degenerate, “pot-heads” use. It sounds like this object has been put into a position far worse than its effects warrant and users feel are necessary.