By MCLH86

I am a 19 year old black female from Ocala Florida. I work at a coffee shop, and attend CFCC full time, I plan to major in education . I was browsing the Internet one day and I stumbled upon your website, and I loved it. I felt compelled to write to you because so much of the information I read was the truest I've encountered in a long time.

The first time I smoked pot was in Orlando with a childhood friend, I was 16. I took a few hits off her pipe, and felt nothing, so I decided that I would never try it again and nodded off to sleep. A few weeks later, I had a change of heart and decided to give it one more try, and this time, it worked. NEVER in my life have I felt so content and euphoric. We laughed for what seemed like hours, we bonded, we got the munchies and we fell asleep. My first time getting high was an experience I will always remember and cherish.

After that my usage was sporadic, but each time was better than the time before. After I graduated high school in August, I began to smoke more regularly, meaning once a day. I have been a regular user for approximately nine months and I would not take it back for anyone or anything. Here are a few reasons why: Smoking pot elevates my consciousness and awareness. It allows me to think freely and abstractly without limitations. My senses are heightened, leaving me with a feeling of integration with my surroundings. It has allowed me to forge relationships with people I ordinarily would not have, and it helped me connect with a spiritual side of myself that I never knew existed. I have nothing but good things to say about marijuana usage and I encourage everyone I know to smoke, and not just people in my peer group either.

The way pot gets used by many young people I know, is disrespectful to me. Pot is not a drug you use to "get fucked up," it is, in my opinion, supposed to be used to relax, bond with people, and have some solid conversation. If you want to get messed up, go get drunk, not high.

I take good care of my body, I am a vegetarian and excersize regularly, pot is my only indulgence and it angers me that it gets treated the way it does by the law. Sitting on my back porch, smoking a joint with my brother and having a great conversation with him, is considered a criminal act, and that is beyond my comprehension. The government needs to be spending the taxpayers hard-earned money on something more substantial than putting teenagers in jail for smoking pot. The whole idea is maddening, and perpetuated by ignorance. I would like to do anything in my power to lift the veil and make our government see the error of their ways.