The whiny anti-weed crusaders are the most annoying people in Aber

If you’re one of the swathes of students that have discovered the sheer brilliance of Yik Yak, you’ll have no doubt come across some considerable number of posts from whining, uptight wet flannels complaining about the fact that someone within a hundred metres of them is smoking weed.

It’s not just on anonymous social networks that these fun-hating buzzkill goblins make their voices heard; no uni house party would be complete without some senior officer from the fun police boring everyone within earshot with their dull, recycled pseudo-moral anti-cannabis crusade bullshit. It’s a complete waste of time, attention and energy and it needs to stop.

Credit: t_bowlz

Let’s start with the aspect of pot-smoking I’ve most often seen griped about on social media: the smell. From the endless Yaks complaining about “the smell coming into my room” (most often from Fferm Penglais, make of that information what you will), you’d think that someone had grown an entire field of cannabis plants somewhere near campus and then set it on fire. I find it hard to believe that the smell of weed, coming from outside a uni room, could be that much of an inconvenience to its occupant. It’s not going to kill you, and your anonymous 15 word rant about it on Yik Yak is incredibly unlikely to convince the perpetrators to stop.

If it really bothers you that much, spray some Febreeze or, even better, close your windows for a while. Don’t be that guy that calls the porters on someone smoking a spliff next to your building. No one likes that guy.

If this bothers you, you need to sort out your priorities.

Then there’s the aforementioned occupants of the high horse; those who genuinely (or otherwise) believe that there are significant health risks or, even worse, moral arguments of some sort for not doing it. Yes, if you have a genetic predisposition to Schizophrenia, it can cause the onset of the condition. And yes, if you smoke it with tobacco, there are the associated health risks from smoking. Yet these concerns are dwarfed by those brought on by alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking (both far more common amongst us students and the population as a whole), which both make pot smoking look as safe as a game of top trumps. If you truly wish to raise awareness of the health issues brought on by substance use, your attention is much better directed elsewhere.

Don’t hate

But these complaints are eclipsed by the “moral” arguments. It’s perfectly reasonable to abstain from doing drugs of any kind because you disagree with the concept of taking them as a whole. The fact is, it simply isn’t a moral issue. The people who do partake are not affecting anyone else, they’re not harming themselves in any significant way, so why do people feel the need to pass sneering, self righteous judgement on those who smoke a bit of weed every now and again? It’s completely futile, and frankly it’s pathetic; It isn’t going to change anything, and it certainly isn’t going to make you any friends. It’s going to make people think you’re an arsehole. And they’re right.

This guy gets it

I do not want any of this to be interpreted as an advert for doing drugs. I acknowledge that it isn’t particularly clever, or productive. But it’s fun. If people can’t have fun at uni without having judgement passed upon them, when can they?