I’ll answer, but first, as someone who has experience with intoxicants:
A. It’s less of a gateway than alcohol. And it can function as a gateway out - I drink a whole lot less thanks to cannabis.
B. No hangover, and better judgment than alcohol. Alcohol is legal.
C. You may act goofy and giggly, but you’re far less likely to do stupid things on cannabis.
D. It’s great to help develop the artistic seed - or experience other people’s art - it can make certain films way better and often not the ones you think: horror films, Disney films (especially Sleeping Beauty), etc… - it t’s like eyeglasses for experiencing music and poetry as you can separate the different threads and feel the groove in ways that only artistic geniuses usually do - similar with food, the taste is out of this world.
E. It improves sex and foreplay.
F. Some elements of work become much easier while on cannabis, and this even includes working out how to design an Excel spreadsheet - aesthetically and functionally… just stay away from YouTube Shorts while high and trying to be productive.
G. It can help a lot with sleep, and not just in the come-down slot (depending on the cannabis product, there’s a period that lasts about 45 minutes to 2 hours where you’ll be able to go to sleep just by laying down and closing your eyes), but up to 3-5 days after. Sleep comes easier.
H. It can help with anxiety, if you’re the sort of person with constant thoughts, and sometimes side-thoughts spin out of control on the periphery of consciousness, leading you to anxiety, the cannabis can shut that down… small amounts of alcohol can work on that too. But cannabis, again, somehow manages to fix that problem for a long time after usage—at least 24 hours. A bit of whisky fixes anxiety only in the very short term. Both alcohol and cannabis are much less dangerous than anti-anxiety meds which have been known to lead to things like antisocial behaviour and self-harm—alcohol much less likely in small amounts (like less than 1-2 drinks); alcohol can make anti-social behaviour more likely if you think it’s funny, cannabis buries the desire for anti-social behaviour. Cannabis just make stupid things seem more funny.
I. Productivity again, it can make boring tasks seem much more interesting… the downside is that it can also make distractions seem much much more interesting. So try to avoid all distraction.
J. Cannabis works weird on memory, one of the positive side effects is that you’ll remember most of your dreams.
There are some downsides. I’ve known some people with psychological disorders who become dependent on cannabis, and it gets to the point where they use it as a crutch for a problem they really should sort out with long term therapy. On the bright side, aside from a brief fight that might last a couple of weeks, it’s usually fairly easy to convince people to tone it down on the cannabis or stop using altogether… not so with other drugs, including alcohol. If you have access to other things, weed will enhance their effects, this includes alcohol. Alcohol becomes much stronger when high, but usually it’s alcohol that will lead to mixing in cannabis, not being high on cannabis leading to drinking alcohol. Alcohol can drastically increase the side-effects of cannabis as well - for example, you could be partying for like 5 hours while high, but it’s actually only been about 20 minutes in real-world time.
Edibles can cause some issues as well since they take as much as two hours to fully kick in. And they can be very confusing because you could get a little bit high in 15-30 minutes, and that little bit high can stay relatively consistent for over an hour, then BOOM, you’re hit with a freight train and it won’t stop. The high on edibles also lasts way longer (in real time), too much and you’ll be high for over 24 hours. Nano-emulsions are a good substitute to edible oil and edibles, as they act quickly and peak out fast, you’re about 80% within 20
Minutes and start to come down within 2 hours (depending on how much you used) although non-intoxicant pleasant CBD effects will last a lot longer. CBD effects are like a pillow
Last downside, taking during a fever can make things rather unpleasant as it makes things feel a little delirious. Fever dreams be drastically intensified.
So, my answer is yes, absolutely. Make it legal in every western country. I think this “illegal but not enforced” bullshit is annoying.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
