It really must be your environment.
I live in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Georgia is a pretty unforgivingly conservative state, so you can't really get away with much. Granted, its still weed, and there's still a lot of decriminalization that seems to be taking effect. I do wish it was legal however. Even though I don't have a habit, it's illegality is just an inconvenience. Plus, drug dealers can be major trouble in the big city. (And Atlanta gets bigger every day)
etc...
I guess it's partly my environment - but probably with a lot of 'me' thrown in. There are many people here who are very paranoid about it (although, it's not really paranoia, which is technically mostly imagined, by definition - the fear surrounding pot is based in valid concerns).
I left South Africa to dodge the draft. I had to give up my home, family and friends, because I refused to support a system that expected white people to go to Angola and kill black people in order to keep a system in place whose fundamental design was to protect the rights of white people to continue killing black people with impugnity.
So I was a 'rebel' (Hippie, Anarchist, whatever...) of sorts and by dint of the huge sacrifice I made to protest an inhuman system, I stopped caring about the fact that I was breaking the law, when I accepted that the law was unjust, and began to live by my own rules.
I was very paranoid when I was a lot younger (and coincidentally - was smoking a lot more pot than I do now) - more than paranoid - genuinely fearful. But I found, over time, that the more relaxed you are about something like that, the less noticed you seem to be. Douglas Adams (hitchHiker's Guide) proposed a concept called a "Somebody Else's Problem Field" - which essentially meant that if you did something so outrageous in plain sight, that people wouldn't notice you, because there's brains were so ready to explode, that it simply wrote the facts off as Somebody Else's Problem.
My pothead ex-friend, in an effort to hide the fact that he's smoking a joint, exhibits behaviour that he achieves the opposite effect, as he looks so suspicious and furtive.
As the ruler of my own universe, I have legalized pot within my subjective reality, and while I don't flaunt it (I'm not trying to make a statement), I also don't hide it. If we are allowed to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes - the two most deadly drugs in widespread use), then *no-one* has the right to tell me I can't smoke pot. Life is full of real problems that need my attention - so i choose not to be overly concerned about my smoking pot.
Also, Canada - especially British Columbia, which consistently produces some of the very best pot in the world - is pretty lax over it - as it is with many other substances - and even moreso in my tiny insular community. You'd never be actually 'charged' for possession. I have a buddy here who was growing 30 plants in his caravan. He has MS, and uses it primarily for pain. A few years ago someone ratted on him, and the cops went around to his place to bust him. They were extremely polite, called him "Mister H*r*d*". When he explained about his MS, they told him that he could apply for a growing permit (it is possible for people with certian - usually terminal - diseases - to get a license to grow up to 16 (I believe) plants for personal use. There is also an orhanization called "The COmpassion Club" that will supply eligible people with Super High Quality, low cost pot. So the cops *apologized* to him, as they had to remove the plants. But he was not charged, and did not even have to go down to the police station.
Even though this is a small island, it has a lot of Coke, Meth and Crack - so there is a very blind eye looking in the direction of pot. In order to put all the local pot smokers in jail, would pretty much involve building a very large high wall around the island.
I guess that I am less paranoid than most people about this - and that works for me. Also, as I don't have a regular habit - and I do not have to invest any actual energy into getting a hold of pot - nor do I smoke enough for it to be expensive - so it's a non-issue in thoses contexts.
But I do believe in my inalienable right to take drugs - especially those that are not physically addicting - are largely non-toxic - and which have the ability to expand consciousness, or act as a conduit and sacriment to spiritual beliefs.
If I were ever busted for taking LSD, I would fight it on 'religious' grounds, and I would in fact hunger strike till death if I were convicted and imprisoned. I know that this sounds a little childish and gung-ho, but I am dead serious. I would view incarceration for LSD in the same light as I saw being drafted to kill people to protect an unconscionable political regime. It would be a contravention of my fundamental human rights to 'worship' within my personal spiritual realm.
These substances are a part of nature (for the most part) - and no-one has the right to tell me that I cannot ingest a substance that I know will affect me for the better, and cause no-one else any harm of any kind. FYI - to give you an idea of the difference between the States and Canada, there are a few more examples.
For example, Peyote is fully legal. There are no laws governing peyote growth or use. You can grow it, dry it, and eat it as much as you want - there are no laws on it at all.
Psilocibin Mushrooms are legal to grow and pick - although there may be some restriction regarding drying them.
Opium poppies are completely legal in Canada, and while bleeding them may be questionable as regards the exact legal status, there is certainly no law preventing you from growing them and making a tea or tincture.
What I see in the world as she is now - is that psychedelics are for the most part completely ignored - and most LSD busts occur because the person is being busted for something more serious, but happen to have acid as well. You never read anything regarding people with LSD 'problems'. It's physically completely non-toxic - no-one has ever died as a direct result of ingestion (and the largest dose ever taken was 40 milligrams of pure crystal LSD - so about 400 modern day doses. It was snorted in a lab, by a chemist who thought it was cocaine). So it seems that there is little or no attention paid to LSD, DMT, and other tryptamines. As I understand it, it seems that even many of the MDMA busts are accomplished when busting a meth lab.
The big shame the way I see it is more owing to the fact that pot and acid are not really socially accepetable - so the thing that has affected my life the most is not concern over being busted, but the fact that I cannot openly discuss some of the things that are the most important in my life. That's the reason that I am so seriously happy to have found BlueLight. It's not the same as being able to go out in the world and just be myself - but it does provide a forum in which I can express the specifics about thoughts and experiences without first having to convert the audience into accepting the validity of the psychedelic experience - an almost impossible task among those who are rigidly straight, not because of an informed decision - but simply by dint of successful cultural brainwashing.
I hope that by the time I die I will be leaving a world that has grown up - or at very least become tolerant to my right to explore my own consciousness. But maybe that's a little unrealistic....
). I found that, suddenly, marijuana stopped becoming a focus in my life. I could take it or leave it... I go days without smoking, and enjoy those days. When I do smoke, it's a hitter or two (of high-quality buds of course), or maybe a bowl. Once in a while, a bong, and I have a marijuana trip rather than a high. I enjoy the positive effects of it much more and experience less negative effects.
) but as tools and substances that can improve one's life. However, more immersed is not immersed; I am impatient, in short.
