Equality

Peace.


Do you know I have never smoked weed in my life??? Never. No contacts… nothing. I’m far from a goody-two-shoes. It’s just something that didn’t happen for me. I see it as a bondage that I have yet to be freed from.

When I was in high school… they years everyone got to smoke weed…. I didn’t. My mother is crazy. Not the light-mild crazy that is expected from all mothers. My mother is/was certifiable. And she was always striving… for reasons unbeknownst to me… and still unbeknownst… to get me institutionalized. Seriously. She has been trying for as long as I remember to get me sent to the shelter. She started when I was 4 and this lasted until I was in my senior year of high school. A way she could relinquish her parental rights, without looking like a monster, was for me test positive for THC cannabis. See? I know the lingo. So I never smoked weed when I was underage. My mother had me tested.

In college…. By the time I got acclimated to the point where I could smoke… I got a job. And with said job came pre and intra employment substance testing. I didn’t want to lose my job so… I didn’t partake.

In graduate school…. This was funny…. They had “random” drug tests of its students. I used quotation marks because I got tested 16 times. That’s once per quarter… As did the other Black students. Some white students never got tested… ever. Or maybe they got tested once or twice in the 4 years. The Black people in my program… and I’m talking about all levels 1st – 4th year used to get rounded up so much, that we’d go out afterward for drinks; trying to be ironic. The testers knew our names.

Most of the jobs I’ve ever had require a drug test. Because I WORK FOR OTHER PEOPLE!!! If I was a self employed entrepreneur, I could do what I want. I’m not saying that there is dignity and glory in being a pot head. As weight conscious as I am, I probably would resent the munchies. But I am mad that other people have kept me from experiencing something that I consider benign and that I’m told is quite pleasurable.

Think about who is making your decisions for you…..



Peace