We are in the darkness; nameless things with no memory—no knowledge of what went before, no understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.I wasn't always a prohibitionist. In fact, in high school I was quite laissez-faire towards drugs. Even after two athletes got arrested for possession before the pudgy, conspiracy theorist, class stoner took the fall for the situation. It was all so stereotypical that I thought nothing of it. The first two years of college were largely the same way although there were moments that raised little flags in my mind.
The first came in the fall of 2008 in communications class. We were placed into groups to present a topic of our choice. My group, led by Miss Minnesota, chose to cover marijuana. I even jokingly suggested we have a cop come in to show what marijuana looks like. She seemed serious about it. It stood out that a pageant contestant would stand in the same corner as the pudgy conspiracy theorist from high school. It was sign of my naivete and of the culture shock that awaited me.
The next incident took place in the winter and spring of 2010 in genetics class, or more specifically genetics lab. The lab had six tables. Five tables had four people each while my table had two people: me and a certain girl. This girl would frequently skip lab entirely and on the rare occasions when she did show up she would display behavior that seemed out of place. Slow, quiet, just not there mentally. Normally I would mark this up as just quirky behavior had it not stood out in stark contrast to her behavior in the lecture portion of genetics class: always in attendance, always asking questions. It was from this that I concluded the reason for her lab behavior was a hang over, whether it be alcohol, marijuana, or Xanax. Regardless of the cause, the effect was me having to do the work of four people and, safe to say, I struggled in that class. Things would be quiet until March 2011 which marked the beginning of the worst year of my life.
