For me, the problem has always been about addiction. I was told from a very young age that addiction had been a problem in my family. My grandmother (who I had never met) several aunts and uncles, and a handful of cousins all had problems with drugs and/or alcohol, and my mom was deathly afraid I would get caught in the same trap. Ever since then I have been very cautious when it comes to drinking and drugs. I am even nervous about prescription medicines, because they can be highly addictive. With a genetic predisposition towards addiction, I have so far kept my drug use to cannabis, which is not addictive at all. Believe me, I checked it out for weeks before trying marijuana the first time, because I didn’t want to get hooked. It turns out that the public service announcements about drugs ruining your mind really did not apply to marijuana. The first time I tried it was in an edible, and afterwards I abstained from using it again for a few more weeks. I wanted to make sure my body wasn’t needing marijuana, which is a sign of addiction. I was still careful the next few times I tried edibles, and eventually when a smoked a marijuana cigarette. In time, I realized that the research was true, and could feel no lasting or lingering effects from the cannabis I had been using. I very much enjoy using marijuana, and think it is a really great way to keep from using alcohol or any other drugs recreationally.