How to smoke marijuana and have a good trip. A sociological look

Howard Becker is an American sociologist born in 1928, he belongs to the “second Chicago school” and, among his most outstanding works, is Becoming a Marihuana User. This work was published in 1953, in the context of an American society not open to discussing legalization. Although the author himself calls for a responsible use of the term “context” so as not to fall into the simplistic generalization that marijuana consumers engage in this practice due to problematic “contexts”, it is imperative to recognize the society that received this work.

In the 1950s, American society was concerned about

crime, mental illness, gangs: things like these were social problems. But relatively few people used marijuana and it didn’t cause too much disruption, so despite the efforts of some authorities, no section of public opinion was clamoring to be rid of the practice.

By the 1960s, marijuana use was widespread among middle-class college students. Among them, some enterprising farmers decided to experiment with growing weed, in the purest style of Savages, the 2012 film directed by Oliver Stone. It is easy to imagine young Californians trying to be enterprising and have fun.

In Becker’s historical context, the use of opiates already existed, which gave rise to the word Junkie, which, incidentally, is the name of a novel by William S. Burroughs, an author of the Beat Generation, a subject that is beyond the scope of this article. The use of these substances was studied a few years before the publication of Becker’s study on marijuana by a colleague of his in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago, Alfred Lindesmith, who wrote Opiate Addiction (1947), a book that “attributed addiction to opiates to the fact that the consumer got the idea that he had to take the drug to avoid intensely displeasing physical symptoms.”

It was clear to Howard Becker that marijuana did not produce these symptoms, so he decided to think of it as non-addictive. He interviewed several university students and discovered that “a good trip” depends on the interpretation of the traveler, so that the same experience, interpreted differently, leads to different sensations. Becker starts from the conceptualization of what he calls “deviance studies”, to present the marijuana user as someone who does not live with a psychological pathology, but who has become a “deviant” for a society; or rather, a hegemonic social group that has the power to impose that label.

In this text there is a shift from why to how. While he does not consider the consumer as sick, Becker leans towards the process that leads the individual to become a regular user of cannabis. The habit of smoking marijuana is perceived in the essay not as a sick act, but as a socially learned activity. The sociologist abandons the idea of a “genetic predisposition” to marijuana use.

Among those interviewed by Becker, a certainty emerges: the first time was neither good nor pleasant. The first use of marijuana is perceived as something common because nothing happens or it is unpleasant because they do not like the effects it produces. The user needs the guidance of more experienced users to learn how to get hooked, otherwise they would give up marijuana.

For Becker, the “disposition” to use marijuana occurs through the learning process and not before. What changes in the subject is the attitude towards the drug, which leads him to experience it. One must learn to have a good trip, says the sociologist. Whoever smokes marijuana for the first time must resignify his experience to try it again and thus become a regular consumer. Becker does not speak of medicinal uses but of pure recreation. The smoker’s goal should be to have fun and experiment with perception. He relies on the notion of “consumption for pleasure”, i.e., the subject does not feel obliged by his own body to smoke marijuana.

According to the author, for those who are experienced in the subject, it is necessary to know the symptoms in order to know that they are “stoned”, otherwise it would seem that nothing is happening. When they are not aware that they are under the effects of cannabis, they can have experiences that border on the ridiculous, with episodes of paranoia in which they presume not to feel anything, but at the same time they are shouting and boasting about their supposed sobriety.

In Becoming a Marihuana User, the reader will find a slight disappointment as it is a little less than the 92 pages promised, since several images intersperse the text. Nor will you find a psychiatric cause for the use of this herb. However, you will find the reason for the continued use of it, because with Becker we learn that, to become a professional smoker and not quit at the first puff, the consumer had to go through a process of teaching and resignification of experiences to recognize the characteristics of a trip that often does not meet previous expectations.

What is most interesting is what can be intuited about the use of other more dangerous substances. Although it is true that a text from 1953 is unable to foresee the development of future situations or the discovery of increasingly aggressive substances, the issue of the re-signification of experiences should not be overlooked.

When the user (in 1953 and today) stops feeling something pleasant and is not able to make sense of continued use, he/she has two options: to stop using marijuana or to turn to another substance in search of better effects. Moving from marijuana use to non-use has to do with the consumer’s conception of marijuana. When someone argues that marijuana no longer has an effect, what they really mean is that they no longer find the same pleasurable experiences.

It is likely that the transition to another drug is due, following Becker’s analysis, to the fact that the user cannot find a pleasurable effect in repeated use, either because of unfulfilled expectations or because of ignorance of the correct use of marijuana. It is noteworthy that there are cases in which users interviewed by Becker report having abandoned marijuana and returned months or years later, with much more satisfactory results. Perhaps to avoid experimentation with other drugs we should first learn to have a good trip.

Humberto Orígenes Romero Porras

Holds a degree in history from the Universidad de Guadalajara. A former Paralympic athlete (2006- 2017), he won a medal at the 2015 Parapan American Games held in Toronto, Canada. A partisan of worthy causes, he is interested in the interconnections between history, literature, and soccer.