David Brooks: Here's Why I Don't Smoke Pot Any More
"For a little while in my teenage years, my friends and I smoked marijuana. It was fun. I have some fond memories of us all being silly together. I think those moments of uninhibited frolic deepened our friendships," he writes in a new column.
But he doesn't do it any more, because (1) he had some embarrassing moments while stoned; (2) he didn't like how weed affected his most stoned friend; (3) he developed higher pleasures; (4) he decided that it was making it harder for him to "become more integrated, coherent and responsible.""So, like the vast majority of people who try drugs, we aged out. We left marijuana behind. I don't have any problem with somebody who gets high from time to time, but I guess, on the whole, I think being stoned is not a particularly uplifting form of pleasure and should be discouraged more than encouraged," he writes.
Read the full column at the Times, including his criticism of legalization in Washington and Colorado.
But don't take only one man's opinion on the subject. Also check out our scientific rundown of the positive and negative effects of marijuana.