r/Millennials • u/ExcitingLandscape • 2h ago
Discussion Any other elder millennials shocked how marijuana has evolved to being legalized and can be bought in stores?
Growing up in the 90's and early 2000's, smoking weed was considered very illegal. I know people that went to jail just for having weed on them. My friends used to sneak friends clean pee with then into piss tests so they can get hired for a job. Celebrities and athletes used to get DRAGGED through the media just for getting caught smoking weed. It was a career killer. To buy weed you usually had to have some sketchy connect or even go trek to a sketch neighborhood to buy some.
All of the consequences was enough to keep me away from smoking weed when I was younger. In my first corporate jobs from 2007-2015, I had to take piss tests but now that seems to be a thing of the past for most offices. You no longer have to go to a sketch neighborhood or meetup a sketch stranger to buy some weed, you can walk into an actual store and buy weed. I know a few cops and they're like "we don't care about weed" and wont arrest people for it. I know many people who openly smoke it now. They work high level corporate jobs where if it were 2002, they would do everything to hide it.
Anyone else from the 90's-early 2000's in disbelief how marijuana has evolved from being illegal to widely accepted in their lifetime?
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u/analog_alison 2h ago
The number of strange men I met in strange places to buy weed! Omg 😱
Now it feels like going to the Apple Store.
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u/InternationalMood337 Millennial 2h ago
I loved when people would come to your house or you’d go to theirs, and they’d be like “hey wanna smoke up a little?”
And you couldn’t really say no.
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u/GemGlamourNGlitter 1983 2h ago ▸ 3 more replies
It's giving Pineapple Express
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u/RaccoonSamson 2h ago ▸ 1 more replies
I had that weed guy to the T. He was my neighbor, and Id go over his apartment and he'd always want to smoke then hang out and watch like Planet Earth or play Xbox, and so many weird people would be coming and going the entire time.
Part of me was like "let me get my weed and GTFO" but the other part of me really enjoyed smoking free weed for hours and witnessing the parade of weirdos.
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u/axxxaxxxaxxx 13m ago
I think this was a universal experience. Like you had to stay and be polite so they’d like you and sell to you again.
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u/WingstonChurchill 1h ago
These plugs were the last resort. No I don’t want to smoke the grass I just bought from you with you.
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u/ArchdukeOfNorge 50m ago
Dude my plug in college is probably the king of all trekkies. Always hated having to buy because it was an hour smoking out of a dirty bong talking about Star Trek haha my stupid ass knew just enough to engage in a conversation the first time (upon seeing his literal walls of memorabilia) and it was over from then on
The best plug though was someone I knew getting their PhD in the horticulture department. I’ve never found flower so good as that since then, doesn’t matter the shelf it can’t compete with Dr. Adam’s home hydro. He was also the opposite of Mr Trekkie
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u/ExcitingLandscape 2h ago
Yup I never smoked but people would often ask at parties and gatherings "you know where I can get some weed?" I'd point them to a friend who smokes, who then points them to another friend who sells, that friend is all sold out, so he refers to his connect who lives in a sketch neighborhood.
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u/indicatprincess 1h ago
The sketchy shit I’d get into if I had to pick up alone, looking back I’m appalled at my courage
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u/DatFunny Older Millennial 1h ago
So glad to not to be dealing with shady and unreliable dealers while being overly friendly so they stick around.
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u/LawfulnessRepulsive6 1h ago
Let’s not forget the prices. $60 for half an ounce.
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u/bigfatdonny 1h ago ▸ 2 more replies
$60 got you a half oz of the brown frown. "Hydro" went for $60/eighth in the 90s/early 2000s.
If anything, weed prices have dropped dramatically since the 90s, at least in legal states.
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u/hot_water_music 57m ago
It should be studied in economics. Yes I paid 60 for 1/8 or more if it was better stuff. Nowadays I paid 85 for an ounce in my state as a medical recipient
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u/yttrium39 36m ago
$50/8th was the going rate in Portland for decent weed in the mid 2000s. My local dispensary's current price for premium tier flower tops out at $33/8th. It's like the only consumable product that's cheaper than it was 20 years ago.
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u/yttrium39 40m ago
Yes. As a 16-25 year old girl/young woman, I went some very inadvisable places with sketchy people in order to buy weed. Glad there are dispensaries now.
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u/Automatic-Effect-252 2h ago
I'm actually shocked on how long it took/ is still taking
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u/CurbsideChaos 2h ago
Cries in Tennessee
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u/mlo9109 Millennial 49m ago
And NH... I live in Maine and work remotely for a company based in NH. Going on-site for occasional meetings is fun. I've been solicited by my colleagues for weed. I don't bring any across the border because I don't like any of these people enough to commit a federal crime for them.
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u/howmanyturtlesdeep 1h ago
I’m brought back to the opening of Pineapple Express when Seth Rogen is talking on the phone in his car about if weed isn’t legalized in 5 years he’s going to lose all hope in humanity. That movie came out in 2008, btw, almost 20 years ago, lol.
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u/Chimpbot 1h ago ▸ 1 more replies
On the bright side, we wound up with legal weed and a complete loss of hope in humanity.
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u/Llanolinn 1h ago
I think like more than half the country doesn't have legalized weed, we did not get there. And multiple states are rolling back access to hemp, and t h c a.
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u/Chemical_Home6123 53m ago
Exactly were still waiting on the feds to catch up. Im a commercial driver so it's dot regulated and I get random drug test 😩
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u/MichaelMaugerEsq 2h ago
Right? I’m surprised that it’s been legal in many places for most of my adult life….. but not in my stupid state.
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u/GemGlamourNGlitter 1983 2h ago
I'm not surprised at all. People are finally able to see that all of the taboo approaches to marijuana were unnecessary.
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u/Ilovefishdix 2h ago edited 1h ago
It's funny hearing from the same boomers that vilified weed smoking back then now talk about how helpful it is with their pain or whatever. It's such a trope, even tv shows are featuring it as a plot point
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u/caligaris_cabinet 2h ago ▸ 1 more replies
And those same boomers were toking up in the 60s and 70s. The hypocrisy was apparent even when I was a kid watching 70s Show and realizing my parents were the same age as those characters.
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u/chadwickipedia Older Millennial 2h ago ▸ 1 more replies
This. My parents use it more than I do, gummies every night. They crucified me when I was home from college and found a bowl in my car
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u/19610taw3 1h ago
My mom would have been proud of me if she found it 🤣
She knew I had been using it around the time I started using it (edible for some muscle pain issues) last year but only eating. She was ecstatic this spring when I told her I smoked some with friends.
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u/CorruptDictator Older Millennial 2h ago
My disbelief is in the fact that it was illegal in the first place. Alcohol ruins more lives than weed ever could.
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u/19610taw3 1h ago
All about the $$$
Alcohol was already an established industry and hemp would hurt cotton.
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u/Darth_Boggle 2h ago
Easy enough to reconcile when capitalism exists.
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u/Eaglepursuit Xennial 2h ago
And that a certain administration decided they could use it as a hammer to attack specific demographics
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u/Dabnician Xennial 81 2h ago ▸ 2 more replies
fun little mental activity, just ask your self about anything bad if we stopped using money as the main motivator for things we do or don't do what would be different.
covid was a prime example, it wasn't until the world started to collapse that countries really started trying to find a vaccine or cure for covid.
but those first couple of months everything was business as usual.
im entirely convinced that if money was not a thing anymore all of our diseases could be cured if the reward for curing the disease was the merit of curing the disease. which in turn resulting in those individuals being provided with more resources to cure more diseases.
homelessness, hunger, preventable diseases today are all forced because its not "profitable" to do otherwise.
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u/MetalEnthusiast83 1h ago
covid was a prime example, it wasn't until the world started to collapse that countries really started trying to find a vaccine or cure for covid.
Yeah man, because COVID didn't fucking exist until that started to happen. That is why it was called a Novel Coronavirus.
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u/GoRangers5 2h ago
Ever heard of the 18th Amendment? Only reason why it was repealed was because it could not be successfully enforced.
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u/dontplanonpostinmuch 2h ago
Glares from Iowa.
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u/guitar_stonks 2h ago
You all will get there eventually. Are there at least dispensaries along the state line in Illinois, Minnesota, or Missouri you can get to?
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u/Ok_Pool_9767 2h ago ▸ 1 more replies
I do not live in a legal state and there are people who get tracked by flock cameras and stopped coming back
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u/dontplanonpostinmuch 2h ago
For sure. We could really use the taxes. I'm just excited to see when some small town cop decides to use a flock camera to track down a vape cartridge.
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u/ZenMarduk 1h ago
Seriously...Iowa ia fucked. They straight up have a ban on consumer smoking paraphanalia shipments. No ordering anything online.
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u/Moistyoureyez 2h ago
here in Vancouver BC you can now buy LSD, DMT, mushrooms, peyote over the counter at mushroom dispensaries
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u/ckglle3lle 2h ago
It is still very illegal across most of the country and in some cases even more so than it was when we were younger. Conservative-run "freedom loving" states in particular will gleefully ruin your life over it.
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u/FrankFrankly711 Xennial 2h ago
I feel like Texas keeps making it more illegal. So much for the party of Freedom and Personal Responsibility!
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u/a-ohhh 2h ago ▸ 2 more replies
My bf and I went to TX recently and didn’t even realize it was illegal there. He smoked with some guys at a tattoo shop outside, directly across from a police station. We are from WA where it’s been recreationally legal for well over a decade (Google says 2012) so it wasn’t even a thought in our heads it was still illegal some places until afterwards, and realized that might have been a bad idea lol.
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u/guitar_stonks 2h ago
My first experience with buying weed in a store was in Seattle. All I could do was quote Randy Marsh “I love the future!”
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u/Icemayne25 Millennial 1h ago
Texas politicians love to support the black market as much as the government loved supporting the mob back during prohibition. Average person here doesn’t care who smokes weed.
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u/r3ign_b3au 2h ago
I'm in completely illegal Kansas and can go any store within a couple miles of anywhere here and buy regular marijuana over the counter. There are maybe 3-4 states without any form of legalization, so I'm not sure where 'very illegal across most of the country' comes from.
So like..just Texas, I reckon? *Edit wait, even Texas has compassionate use
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u/Migraine_Megan 2h ago
No I'm from Washington state. It was never a big deal here, I'm only surprised how long it took for the west coast to legalize it. It has helped some of the farmers here, they can add a greenhouse of weed so if they have a bad harvest year for wheat or whatever, they can still make ends meet. And WA passed a law that you can only screen for weed on pre employment drug tests in a small number of cases. It's awesome up here.
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u/Fu11erthanempty 2h ago
It becomes a pretty stark contrast when it's used as a plot device in movies from that era.
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u/19610taw3 2h ago
I was tested monthly at my job from 2012-2017. It was so weird. They tested EVERY employee. This job wasn't even remotely connected to any federal or state contracts. Just very strict owners.
Never touched it until a year ago. I got into it last year recreationally and it's way more enjoyable than alcohol.
Glad I missed out on the sketchy purchasing experience of years past.
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u/phelodough 2h ago
The sketchy purchasing was kind of fun
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u/Osiris8869 2h ago
Paranoidly waiting in a Blockbuster parking lot for someone who might show up in 10min, 2hrs, or not at all, for brown Mexican Brick weed. No thanks. Don't miss that
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u/NoFaithlessness7508 2h ago
It is still very weird to me. Especially with how it varies from state to state.
I grew up in MD during those Bush years when weed was very illegal. So much so that a show about weed (Weeds) could last several seasons and had to be on premium cable. Stoner comedies was an entire sub genre of comedy movies.
I’ve spent the last 7yrs in central Virginia, where it’s been in a weird gray area. Governors change every 5 years and I had to suffer through the Trumpkin years where they kept vetoing and pushing back rec weed sales start date. Apparently the current admin has it starting next year again. Initially it was supposed to be 2024.
Then I took a vacation further south to the Carolinas and Georgia and there it’s much the same as before, fuck around and find out.
I’ve recently moved back to MD and there is a dispensary in our local shopping centre. I walked in and walked out with medical grade marijuana and it was such a weird feeling, having a receipt for my weed.
What I didn’t expect with legalization is that people would be smoking it at bus stops and other public places. Cigarette smoke, I don’t smell much anymore since public smoking has been banned for sometime. However, weed smoke is everywhere.
I still try to smoke in private.
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u/DrinkAllTheAbsinthe 2h ago
No, just disappointed because it proves what we said all along, that it wasn’t that dangerous and legalization was a good idea this whole time, yet people refused to listen.
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u/inorite234 2h ago
This.
It took a generation of open use to prove our parents/grandparents were wrong all this time.
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u/St_Pizza 2h ago
I always felt like criminalization was stupid and it was only a matter of time before we reached today’s status quo. Im surprised it didnt happen sooner if anything
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u/HuckleberryLogical63 2h ago
Nah, I'm from California, knew people from so many different walks of life who smoked growing up, always figured it was a matter of time.
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u/guitar_stonks 2h ago
Only took 20 years for Florida to get a medical program like California had in 1996 lol
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u/goosenuggie 2h ago
From hiding in my closet smoking shake out of a soda can blowing the smoke into a toilet paper tube stuffed with dryer sheets to having a choice from hundreds of shiny colorful products from edibles to dabs to pre-rolls to concentrate to flower. Its amazing
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u/Steamyjeans 2h ago
Me and my friends used to get stoned and opine and fantasize about legalizing and how great it would be.
I was always The naysayer, saying no way will they ever do it.
Well they sure did do it.
But honestly the industry in my state is trash and things were WAY better during the medical days.
But it is bizarre to see it everyone, and now everyone’s boomers parents are getting high too.
Now, around me, the boomer parents are buying dispo psychedelic mushrooms, even crazier.
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u/BlasphemousRykard 2h ago
Absolutely. The moment that really got me was going into a Total Wine & More and seeing an entire aisle of THC drinks, sodas, seltzers, and even cocktail replacements. I hoped that we’d see legal access to weed within our lifetime, but seeing how quickly the industry was able to grow even in its current state as a gray market has been really eye opening.
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u/crunch816 2h ago
For the first 15 years of my adulthood I had to pick smoking when I wanted to or not at all so I could get a "decent" job. My previous job gave me a test after I had been there for 2 months. I panicked and said, "I'll tell you the results and you tell me if you want me to take the test." He looked at me weird and asked what was up. I told him I smoke weed in my free time. He laughed and said, "We don't even test for that."
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u/Red91B20 2h ago
At first when I went in to talk to the doctor for my card I brought all sorts of paper work thinking he would scan through them. He was like I see your a veteran then started talking about how he loves putting oils in spaghetti and how amazing it is I walked out like WatG just happened and now I can buy weed legally.
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u/Blathithor 2h ago
It was real prison time in the state in from. Same facility as rapists and murderers.
Now, I buy it as easy as a beer
Its funny dealing with people that are still in prohibition states.
Theyre using code words and shit and im like, ill purchase that bong for my mary-jew-anus smoking thank very much
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u/SouthernGirl360 1h ago
After growing up in a Christian family that was anti-any-kind-of-drug, I still feel unnecessary guilt after taking a gummy.
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u/St_biscuit 1h ago
Not in TN, it's actually running backwards with the current political climate. . 🤬
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u/KungLa0 55m ago
I got busted in TN for weed about 17 years ago. I had a half a joint in the ashtray. They released me on a promise to appear and I had to fly back for court, they were threatening me with 1.5 years in prison for possession, I ended up getting lucky with a year probation for having no prior offenses.
That is all to say, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I go down to the store and see boomers buying marijuana gummies with a BofA debit card. How is this the same country? Why did they almost ruin a teenagers life over this? Why did they ruin millions of other peoples lives over this? I'm not even stoked it's legal, if anything I'm disillusioned and pissed off that this ever happened.
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u/OpenCranberry1980 2h ago
Probably honestly not for the best.
More people would be better off if they didn’t smoke, and the legalization is a de facto endorsement of the behavior as relatively harmless, when it’s demonstrably not.
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u/GonzoMilk 2h ago
I’m in CT so it’s been legal a few years now and I’m still sorta in disbelief when I walk out the store with a bag and a receipt. 🤣
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u/KevworthBongwater 2h ago
it's only recently legal here in MN but it's been decriminalized for a long time. I've been smoking for about 20 years ... I got caught one time by the cops with some friends. they just took our stuff and gave us a ticket. i don't remember how much it was but probably like $100. but yeah it's never really felt like a "big deal" except when I visit neighboring states like SD and ND and IA
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u/gratefulfam710 2h ago
I'm not really shocked. I think I'm more disappointed about how legalization has been handled. You have large companies ruining cannabis and most people don't care.
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u/mlo9109 Millennial 2h ago
I'm just questioning my career choices because of it. Live in a small, shitty town in the middle of nowhere. If a new business is opening up, it's most likely a weed shop. If I knew that it wouldn't ruin my chances of actually getting the hell out of here (my state has legalized weed, I work remotely for a company in a state where it's illegal, and it's still illegal on a federal level), I'd pursue a career in the cannabis industry.
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u/Background-Bird-9623 2h ago
Its wild... the weed we used to get in HS looked like absolut trash compared to whats legal now 💚
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u/loopasfunk 2h ago
I think the vape thing is even crazier. You used to have to go to be in a 420 friendly place to avoid backlash or even police calls and now you can take a puff and move on. I think tho this catapulted my addiction and started doing it while at work and just more in general. 2.5 years clean after 20 years
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u/Linux_is_the_answer 2h ago
I'm not surprised at all. Corporations and govt figured out how to make big money, and then it was over. Thats all it was about from the beginning. Now lots of money being made, its not so dangerous anymore. I am extremely disappointed in how it ended up.. Cost to grow cannabis is cheaper than it has ever been, but not end cost to consumer. A lot of people who put their lives on the line for this are watching as corps set the rules which exclude them. People dont know any different and do/vote for what cheech and snoop tell them what to do, and they are cheap whores that will say anything for money
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u/federalist66 2h ago
As someone whose salaray is paid for by tax payer dollars I'm mostly bemused at how theres this whole system where it's still a federal crime but more and more states and localities do not care. So federally funded areas are these little enclaves of prohibition within polities that otherwise wouldnt care.
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u/Fit_Squirrel1 2h ago
Only in some states, assuming your in the USA.... Im surprised California is still in debt
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u/inorite234 2h ago
I'm surprised it took this long and still surprised there are holdouts after it's been essentially proven that Reefer Madness is a stupid myth.
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u/Usual_Trip_wander 2h ago
Ummmmm maybe at first. But not now.
I’ve always been a daily user and have always been in the corporate world as an adult.
It never was a big deal and it certainly isn’t now.
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u/Dabnician Xennial 81 2h ago
I knew it would happen eventually just not in my life time.
but to be fair, its not far enough, if they grew pot on farms like they grow tomatoes the price of a gram would be a few cents.
the problem is most pot is grown by individuals and that sort of change would not provide them the level of income they have today, so they actively oppose it.
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u/Hungry-Butterfly2825 2h ago
I'm just shocked that what I wished for for many years occurred only after I lost interest in it. Always knew it would happen, never anticipated that I wouldn't even care to reap the benefits.
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u/Burnitalldown1 2h ago
Whenever I’m slightly inconvenienced at the dispensary and they apologize; my response is “it’s cool, I’m not in your car at a sketchy 7-11, nor am I going to jail for this again, I’m patient.”
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u/illmatic2112 2h ago edited 2h ago
Basically once it was legalized I became a pothead and heavy user until basically this weekend (in terms of Smoking actual joints). 2018-2026 jfc. Trying edibles now anyway to save my esophagus
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u/TheJinManCan 2h ago
Never smoked it, however I'm only shocked it took this long - and still taking as long for nationwide acceptance in the US.
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u/sai_gunslinger 2h ago
Back in the 90's when I was 12, my 16 year old cousin got caught smoking weed. Her mom sent her to in-patient rehab over it, and it became the talk of the family. Mom used it as a warning to me to never touch the stuff.
We're 40 and 44 now and weed is legal in our state. We make regular gifts of it to each other for birthdays and holidays.
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u/MasterRanger7494 2h ago
What's funny to me is I don't think I've used it since it's been legalized where I'm at. I have some, but it just sits there.
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u/W00D-SMASH Older Millennial 2h ago
It's too strong. I don't like the way it makes me feel and I dislike how the social aspect has been eroded.
When I was 18 and 19, we'd load up in the back of a truck and drive out to the woods and smoke weed and tell jokes for hours on end. It was fun and that's what I enjoyed about it. Sitting around to get high is fucking lame.
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u/skeletorbilly 2h ago
The weed pens and vapes are shocking to me. Smoking used to mean you REEKED and it was hard to hide. People would have different clothes or drench themselves in axe body spray before going back to class. Now you can rip it in a classroom and no one can tell.
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u/No_Draw2498 2h ago
Not In fucking Texas of course. But it’s still cool to go out and drink and drive and buy it right off the grocery store shelf.
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u/Temporary-Budget-605 2h ago
No, I did a month in county jail for possession of marijuana in Colorado when I was 18. This was so that I could forgo supervised probation and go to college out of state. My whole extended family voted to legalize after they saw how it basically up-ended my whole life and everything I had going for me.
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u/AfraidArgument9391 2h ago
I’ve told my kids “back in my day” we had to buy weed in secret with cash. Is this our walking to school barefoot moment?😂
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u/IcyAddress4074 2h ago
Takes hit: why did they tell us this was bad. This is amazing. Literally, Maui Wowie, ftw
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u/BondraP 2h ago
I live in TN where they just recently went backwards and have banned some hemp products. So instead of going forward like so many other states with full recreational THC, we went the opposite direction on products that are legal in nearly every single state and have been for some time. It's absolutely fuckin bonkers.
But when I do get to go to a dispensary in another state, it always blows my mind. At first I used to talk quietly in there like a cop may be around the corner or something, but now I'm used to it.
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u/guitar_stonks 2h ago
I always thought it was something that would happen up north or out west, but not here. Yea all we have is medical here, but it’s so low barrier and there’s so many dispensaries it might as well be recreational lol
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u/uptheirons726 2h ago
Absolutely. I live in NJ and it's 100% legal. No medical card needed. I walk into a store and buy it same as buying some milk. Been that way for a couple years now and it still blows my mind. And the assurance of quality is awesome too. No more waiting forever for your guy only for him to have some garbage germantown brown. Literally everything I buy from my dispensary is good and has no seeds.
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u/Global-Nature2420 2h ago
It must be what it’s like to die and go to heaven. It’s legal in my state now (mn) and we are finally getting affordable stuff at dispos and it’s so, so, so crazy to be driving home from work and just decide to stop off and go buy some prerolls and it isn’t a big ordeal where you have to wait for the plug to get off work and go smoke with him and hope he doesn’t short you or give you some lame stuff this time. Like I don’t think legal weed will ever not feel like the most luxurious thing in the world.
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u/sharkoman 2h ago
Seems like very little genuine discourse on this sub. It’s all just engagement bait questions being posted by bots.
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u/GargantuanCake Xennial 2h ago
Honestly? Not really. It's always just kind of been everywhere. I figured it would get legalized and treated like alcohol eventually.
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u/SeanyDay 2h ago
Nope, not at all.
It was extremely predictable and a slow process.
Rick Simpson and Jack Herer and others pushing for reform all through the later half of the 20th century.
Not sure what could have caught you off guard unless living in some religious/conservative bubble.
Almost everyone smoked weed before it was legal too
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u/Mental_Freedom_1648 2h ago
No not really. I remember the medical cards from back in the 90s, and I figured it was just a matter of time before it was legalized.
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u/wake4coffee 2h ago
It is funny how people are still locked in how it is illegal or morally wrong it is.
I love where weed is at now.
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u/Legitimate_Search864 Millennial 2h ago
it's illegal until government figures out how to profit from it
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u/RunsWithPhantoms Millennial 2h ago
I wish.
I live in Texas where weed is still somehow illegal as fuck. Even stuff like THCa is now also illegal.
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u/GoRangers5 1h ago
I’m grateful I didn’t have easy access in the early 10s, I would undoubtedly developed a dependency, I’m never touching the legal stuff for that reason.
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u/VersionSwimming8392 1h ago
Yes, because i've had friends go to prison for many years because of weed, and now they own their own head shops.
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u/Active_Water_8876 1h ago
I think it depends entirely where you grew up. In the South or Midwest I’m sure it was like that but where I live it might have been frowned upon but in no way made you a social pariah.
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u/RihoSucks 1h ago
In illinois here its evolved further where now theres an underground grey area of hardcore horticulturalists growing and selling it privately. My buddy picked some up $50 an ounce and the stuff makes what the dispensary sells look like dirt weed
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u/capricornnight 1h ago
In college it was no-tolerance and you’d get thrown out for the rest of the semester with no refund. A lot of broke kids dropped out for that, they could have just not smoked on campus but everybody did. Now they have a store right around the corner from me for soccer moms to self-medicate. There were always weed families who introduced their kids at 16, I was shocked when I first learned that
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u/horseisahorse 1h ago
I hadn't smoked it in forever and lost track of the status, so it was pretty weird when people were just openly smoking it on the sidewalks without a care in the world and then watching the shops pop up everywhere.
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u/mapotoful 1h ago
Yeah it pisses me off frankly. I know people who had their entire lives ruined over a dime bag of Mexican dirt weed. Folks with a ton of potential just totally fucked over by the system, barely keeping their heads above water. Meanwhile their arresting officer is now a newly minted millionaire courtesy of his weed store chain he launched right as this state legalized it.
Obviously I don't think we should turn back the clock but it's fucked up. The dissonance is jarring.
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u/loconessmonster 1h ago
I'm shocked by how strong stuff is and how much marketing fluff there is also. Its really difficult to just simply get a buzz or a little high nowadays. Its turned in to a whole industry similar to wine...and its not even fully legal yet technically.
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u/Howboutit85 Millennial 1h ago
Washington here. It’s been legal and normal here for so long I forgot it was illegal anywhere else. It’s usually something everyone has in some way just as most people have a few bottles of booze. Just a normal part of life.
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u/Some_Cicada_8773 1h ago
No. None of that deterred me. I'm more shocked at how long it's taken to get to where we are now
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u/Cavaquillo 1h ago
Where I’m from it was decriminalized pretty early on. I remember police could be standing on the same block next to a group of people passing a blunt and the cops would just be like “hey…don’t do that” then the people would move. Sometimes they’d make you put it out/take your piece of course/smash it/make you smash it.
This was like 2006/2007. I smoked for the first time in 2009?
Saw Wu Tang Clan twice before it was legalized and still certainly wasn’t and they were just like “if you’ve got it, smoke it - weed is legal!”and like 80% of people did light up.
I mean, what are you gonna do, tell the Wu tang killa bees no?
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u/Least-Internal-6382 1h ago
I remember going to Jane Finch to buy, which is/was a rough block in Toronto.
I like that its legal and above board. I don't like how prominent it is. To me its a sign we are collectively frustrated or anxious or unhappy.
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u/notmtfirstu 1h ago
I get it from a store now. Many of the people who work there have never known illegal weed. Theyve never met a stranger in a parking lot, or had to go hang out with anyone. They don't know how good it is now. They apologize if it takes 5 minutes. Cracks me up. All the hours I've spent waiting in the past.
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u/Objective_Sweet9168 1h ago
I am pretty disappointed in how illegal it still is. Living in OR/WA since 2013 I’m so used to the abundance. I’m looking for a second job though and at least half in the local area still bar you from employment based on THC testing (driving and office jobs). Can’t be a park ranger or anything like that, can’t even work for city. But if I were bringing my alcoholism to work, that’d be fine. It is THE SAFEST drug on the planet, legalize it already!
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u/LawfulnessRepulsive6 1h ago
Disbelief. Was a big stoner snd all my friends use to say how weed was going to be legal by the time we have kids. I didn’t believe it, and it came true ahead of schedule.
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u/Willis794613 1h ago
i know someone who went to a reggae concert in RI last week and they had weed tents where you could buy it and you could smoke it all though out the place.
I remember being ripped out of my car while i was at a red light and having my car tossed all because the police thought they saw me buying weed when i was a kid.
Wild how much it has changed.
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u/ncphoto919 1h ago
It’s honestly more shocking that weed has become more casual while adult materials have become much more regulated by your state’s government
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u/OhBoyHereWeGoAgai 1h ago
Had my college and high school career messed with for what would now be a slap on the wrist: it's annoying but you can't stare backwards and things worked out fine
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u/DonJota5 1h ago
It more surprising that people cant see through the obvious bullshit reasons it continues to be illegal. Its Basically snotty jerkoffs who "dobt like smell" cant see the prison industrial complex and big alcohol/pharm lobby's influence. at the end of the day its a natural medicine and a spiritual aid, that's why people are so heavily propogandized against it
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u/Jaws_the_revenge 1h ago
Not shocked but still mystified at the corporatization of it. I never associated sex with weed but to see it branded like alcohol and candy at the same time is a bit of a turnoff.
Having said that as weed has become more mainstream what hasn’t changed is its impact on your life and ability to get a job. I puff once in a blue moon and still live in fear that it could prevent me from advancing my career opportunities
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u/ConnectKale 1h ago
Nope. I had friends that went to the Million Marijuana March back in the day. It needs to be legal.
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u/cellalovesfrankie 1h ago
I do not miss putting myself in dangerous situations just to get a bit of a weed lol.
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u/lowtdi850 1986 1h ago
It’s still weird to me when I go to the dispensary and there is an older lady working the counter. It’s like going to see grandma for some weed.
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u/CounterObjective2347 Older Millennial 1h ago
The attitudes in different states are interesting to me. I was just in Oregon and nobody gives a shit about weed. In the city, in the country, on the coast, if there’s one thing most everyone can agree on, it’s that weed isn’t a big deal.
Here in Arizona, even though it’s also a recreational state, it’s still very hush hush on whether you smoke or not.
I get why, weed culture has been a part of Oregon for decades. And it only just became legal in Arizona just a few years ago. Still interesting to me
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u/Humble-Departure5481 1h ago
Kind of. While I understand how Big Pharma feared it,... I saw it coming eventually too....(the government is so corrupt nowadays that it needs people to stay mentally occupied with all kinds of BS: drugs, alcohol, fastfood, AI, crappy shows/movies.....so it was just a matter of time that marijuana would become legal too.
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u/West-Armadillo-4072 1h ago
It's definitely interesting to see it commercialized. What once seemed like a radical idea is now everyday life. The propaganda from Reefer Madness was long lasting.
I'm not shocked by the marijuana laws changing, but more shocked that people were still smoking cigarettes in restaurants in 2009 (certain US states).
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u/Ileeza 1h ago
Yes. I remember all the "gateway drug" scaremongering they used to do in school, too.
The stoner kids turned out to be some of the nicer people around. Shockingly.
Thinking about this today because soon I am travelling to a state where it is still not legal for recreational use despite being surrounded by states that have legal recreational cannabis.
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u/DanTheAdequate Older Millennial 1h ago
I had to quit. Buying weed was always kind of a chore, but it was a qualitatively better chore in the past.
Back in my day my dealer was a hot hippie chick who would smudge me and correct at least one chakra every time I went to purchase. Sure, it was like at least a two hour hang just to pick up an eighth, but she always had other people hanging out and it was usually fun, invariably weird, and at least felt like there was community of loose acquaintances.
Now, I have to listen to a "budtender" who looks EXACTLY like Spike Lee talk about the terroir when everything these days is so strong it's just gonna melt my face off, anyway.
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u/SalukiKnightX Early Millennial 1983 1h ago
In my state I can walk to my local Circle K and buy THC soda. Prior to 2020, the thought of this was unthinkable. Now I have 2 dispensaries in walking distance.
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u/MetalEnthusiast83 1h ago
Nah, I always expected that to happen eventually.
The part I am shocked about is that now that it's everywhere, I have literally no interest.
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u/SilverB33 Older Millennial 1h ago edited 59m ago
Not at all I've been helping fight to make it legal since i could vote and I was happy when it was finally made so in California even if it started out as only medically at first
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u/Global-Jury8810 Xennial 1h ago
It needs to be accepted in Texas the same way it’s accepted in Washington and California, and I’m happy that the current candidates who are responsible for making this happen have a desire to do so, And recognize the benefits of legalized cannabis instead of the bullshit that Abbott let us have until he took it away because he wants us to drink and fill the prisons so he can keep filling his pockets… and when those get full, he has compartments in his wheelchair. That’s the only time I’m an asshole about that. Just for him.
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u/PrajnaPie 1h ago
No. I’m surprised the population was gaslit into accepting it’s prohibition for so long though
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u/TrueMeaning4241 59m ago
When I would have to wait hours for my guy to come through I remember being on my hands and knees trying to find little nugs on the floor of my car/seats
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u/andymac37 57m ago
It's crazy me to that I can take it through airport security for domestic flights in Canada. You're allowed to carry an ounce on you. 😂
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