Hi, Purple Potatoes

Firstly, if your math teacher 'knows' you smoke weed becasue someone told him (you, or one of your class 'mates'), then he really doesn't know shit - unless he catches you smoking it...keep it that way

Secondly, it was a great parallel to draw between the 'Lotus Eaters' and weed smokers - because, in many ways, it is a truism.

Mainly.
I'm glad you don't view smoking weed as being escapism from anything - because, quite frankly, it doesn't work like that. Weed has helped me through some of the darkest times of my life - not because it takes me 'away' from my problems, but because it helps me to view things in a calm and rational manner - always a good thing. However, I would say that it promotes complacency, to a degree, and that's when things start slipping away.
My single worst problem is that I keep 'putting things off', usually until it's nearly too late to do anything about it - if I'm honest, then I would attribute this to being stoned - not a good thing.

As I always say in my little 'speeches' about such things - Enlightenment comes at a price.
That price might be something as small as an hour or two lost in deep-thought, other times, it can mean alienation from your fellow man, as they struggle to comprehend your new-found viewpoint of life and it's intricacies. Often, the 'enlightened ones' will begin to close themselves off from the general populace, as they believe that their efforts at sharing that enlightenment seem to be lost upon those who are too firmly rooted within the protocol - this is where I find myself.

The trick is to find the balance between co-existence (and therefore a degree of acceptance and sufferance) and further enlightenment.
On the face of it, this seems to be an easy thing to acheive, however, the battle between knowing the truth and living the lie, becomes a difficult prospect indeed.
This is also where I find myself.

Sawleaf is absolutely correct when he says that you must work harder than the others, if only to show them that weed doesn't destroy your intellect and prowess.
If you (we) don't, then they'll see that as a means of discrediting not only you (us), but also the many values that weed has to offer the human outlook on life.

GOLDEN RULE:
Use the drug...don't let the drug use you!"

What you are going through, Purple, is something that you should embrace with a modicum of respect - I call it gaining 'Independant Thought'.
That is, that you are beginning to question the manner of things, rather than accept them as a given mode of existence...a wholly good thing!

It becomes a game, my friend - play it well, and you'll begin to discover a whole lot more about this world and yourself.
Play it badly, as we all do from time to time, then you'll discover a lonely world of frustration and despair, as your intelligence begins to scream at the ways that things are done, and you balk at the seemingly pointless practices of this world and its people.

It's a ying-yang-thang, everyone - find the balance, and all will be well

Shit, I'm sounding like some kind of shaman, init lmfaoooo
Maybe I'm talking a load of bollocks - if I am, then I'm fucked, because that's the way I look at things lol...
Genetics goes beyond the mere bodily construction etc, it also works with the psyche of people - it's how religion works, for example, beliefs are passed from generation to generation, and patterns evolve and grow - we, as users of weed (and thus seem to be more enlightened than those who don't) are breaking from the protocol, and are seen as different (stands to reason).
We have to show them that our difference is not a bad thing, and in time, maybe they'll begin to 'see the light', so-to-speak.

Fuck it, I'm rambling - and I'm not even stoned...but I am on heavy medication lol ...
I hope I made sense, and I hope even more, that I'm actually on topic lmfaoo

I just got strong ideas about this kinda thing, you know.
I hate the protocol, and how it manipulates people into living their lives in certain ways - they follow along like sheep, neither questioning themselves, or the world about them...continually contributing to the survival of the very thing that is destroying their souls and spirits - it's hard to watch, and it's even harder to know that, like it or not, we have to be a part of that system too

Anyways, I gabbled on for ages, so I'll go now...

Res...