Quote Originally Posted by Oneironaut
I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is nothing wrong with peer pressure. Everybody belongs to some social group and adopts many of the societal norms they find their peers following. For example, why do so many teenagers skateboard, dye their hair, or use the latest slang words? Because they enjoy doing those activities with their friends and they consciously chose to do it out of their own will. It's not like people are being forced into following societal norms; it's just what humans tend to do because we are social creatures who like to have a sense of belonging. Smoking pot is no different. If someone consciously chooses to smoke pot because his friends all seem to be having a good time with it, what is wrong with that? He's not harming anyone else, and nobody is going to beat him up if he refuses (if someone is threatening to beat him up, then the ethical issue is not peer pressure but violent threats, which is a different ballpark). Everyone should be able to do as they please so long as nobody else gets hurt in the process, no matter what their motives are in doing the activity they have chosen to do.
I disagree with some aspects of your opinion and this is why. Having a sense of belonging to a group because of having to conform is like assimilating bad behaviour because everyone else is that way inclined. If someone doesn't know right from wrong, and most people only comprehend this literally, then peer pressure doesn't enable those people to make the right decission for themselves. They tend to make the decission which provides popularity or comfort or whatever fulfilment one is seeking out of that group. People being forced into the NORM isn't right, it means people aren't free to be who they want to be, thus they are forced. I've been forced, and I've been lost through this encounter, and I am now seeking the truth in the midst of many lies. To become caught up in impressing others and losing oneselve; being a conformists. I see people having a good time doing all kinds of things; the bus driver has a good time scaring passingers by going fast, police have a good time fuckin with peeps. Orite, bus drivers and po po are jobs. But the same peer pressure still goes on in employment as well as in other social group encounters.

Doing as one pleases contradicts peer pressure to some degree; there is often one or two who feel no pressure because they are actually being who they are. Any pressure applied to cause someone to do something means they aren't doing as they please. It means they are under influence. I'm going for a shit fucit