Cannabis in the United States and the Philippines

Tagged with cannabis, california, drugs, philippines, united states, washington state on December 17, 2023

Cannabis is widely used in a lot of countries, whether it’s legal or illegal.

I only smoked it a few times when I was young (I can’t remember more than six), long before I met my wife, Josie. I didn’t really care for it, because it was illegal, but I always seemed to be around people who did. It made me feel like I was in a mental fog, if you can imagine that, but I liked it. It was almost like getting drunk, but without the associated sluggishness.

Cannabis in the United States

Cannabis has many different common names in the United States. I’ve heard terms like grass, pot, weed, and marijuana most of my life. The American federal government doesn’t recognize it as anything but illegal, yet certain American states and cities consider it legal. I don’t know what legal gymnastics they use, and I really don’t care. My children and their families currently live in American states where it’s legal.

Early this year, when I knew I was going to be spending some time in Washington State, I started looking forward to consuming some cannabis. I quit smoking cigarettes in 2016, so smoking anything at all wasn’t going to happen. I was there seven months and I never got around to trying any. It turned out to be unimportant to me, and it would’ve taken more effort than it was worth. Only three out of five of us could legally partake, and we would’ve had to go elsewhere because we were staying in base housing.

All five of us spent a few days in California, where my other daughter-in-law is stationed. Cannabis is legal there as well, but I never even thought about it. Josie and I will probably be leaving the Philippines in 2025, visiting one family or the other, and I doubt I’ll consider it then.

Cannabis in the Philippines

I don’t know what cannabis is called in the Philippines because I don’t know anyone who uses it.

There are members of Philippine Congress who are trying to legalize or decriminalize it, but there’s a lot of pushback from the older politicians. This Rappler article tells a lot. Cannabis is the second most widely used drug in the Philippines, after “shabu” (the Filipino word for methamphetamine). I’m one of those people who believes the legal use of cannabis might reduce or eliminate the use of other drugs by some people.

Legalization would be a winning solution. The local and state governments in the United States are collecting a lot of revenue from the sales. The cannabis is regulated where it’s sold, making it far safer than anything purchased illegally. They don’t lace it with harder drugs, something that “pushers” are known to do. I can’t prove it, but I believe a lot of the harder drug addictions are caused by them doing exactly that.

Cannabis is probably safer than any other drug, including alcohol and tobacco. Is it addictive? It depends on who you ask and when you ask them. Some people can get addicted to anything. I’m not sure, but I will probably use cannabis in the Philippines if it becomes legal before I get too old to care, or if it becomes legal before I decide to leave the country permanently.

Image by Elsa Olofsson from Pixabay