I have come home/had to be around my parents extremely high many a time, and I am no longer paranoid about it. Apparently (they've commented on it) I am much kinder and more pleasant to be around when I'm stoned.

It's also true that I've made many friends with people I probably would have never talked to if we didn't have a common interest in weed. There's a couple black dudes at work, real gangbangers, and I'm this skinny white kid who's a little bit of a reverse racist, but we smoke it up at work all the time, and we've developed a great friendship that would never have happened had it not been for weed.

Marijuana breaks down cultural barriers. It does not distinguish between race, age, sex, sexual orientation, or political belief. Anyone who smokes knows that they have a friend in anyone who smokes, no matter their differences. That, my friends, is one of the reasons I love our plant so much.