Wenzel, John. “High Scores: Do Pot and Video Games Feed Each Others’ Addictive Qualities?” The Cannabist. The Cannabist, 3 Feb. 2015. Web. 15 July 2015.
There are pretty much two things in this world that John Wenzel believes that go together perfectly; weed and videogames. John Wenzel is a reporter for the website “the Cannabis”, and is the author of both the nonfiction book “Mock Star”, and the article “High Scores: Do pot and videogames feed each others’ addictive qualities?” This article was posted on February 3, 2015; in it John comments how marijuana and videogames are almost made for one another because of their ability to pretty much waste your time and mellow you out whenever you want. However it is known that both weed and video games can be very addictive to certain types of people, so Wenzel asks the question; is there a higher danger of addiction when we combine the two.
Wenzel reported that the combination of both weed and videogames addiction rate is actually relatively smaller than the addiction rate of cigarettes, saying that “video games and weed, even combined, still less habit forming that a pack of Marlboros.” He goes on to say that there have been reports that say that young adults who play videogames constantly everyday tend to smoke twice as much as casual players. However according to Wenzel; there have been reports saying that any substance use while gaming actually intertwines with the virtual experience. So he argues that there still isn’t any real scientific evidence that suggest that marijuana and gaming combined can be bad. According to Wenzel “[His] experience tells [him] that they’re more of a complementary duo.”
Wenzel suggestion when people tend to combine the two, it isn’t because of their addictive traits. It’s essentially because of the same reason why anyone actually does anything, which in Wenzel words, it’s “a uniquely satisfying form of relaxation, escape and entertainment.” So according to Wenzel, studies have shown that people that are most likely at risk of addiction to video games tend to feel alienation and a lack of accomplishment in society. Some might say that they are just weird people and outcast of society, but actually it can be anyone. Wenzel then goes and explains his own experiences with the combination saying that the experience is similar to drinking a few beers and just lounging around playing games that award you for playing compulsively. Which could to lead to more serious scenarios such as emptying your bank account or neglecting your family. However Wenzel goes on says that all these actions and traits can be categorized as “Addictive”, but also can be written down as just “Lazy.”
All-in-all with the absence of actual hard research on the topic, we can’t really reach a fair conclusion. But as Wenzel puts it “these things are supposed to be fun, so do we really want to explore how bad they can get?” Like any indulgence, Wenzel argues that video games and weed are appealing because they’re a break from the real world, not a daily replacement.
I honestly never used marijuana in my life. Mainly because of all the anti-drug propaganda I’ve seen on TV in my early years and having almost all of my life being told that if I used drugs, I would be disowned by my family and god. So throughout middle school I would be scared from all the high school stories that most people usually heard in their life. Stuff like, “If you didn’t do marijuana, you weren’t a cool kid”, or “If you did marijuana, then you would go straight to prison” It may seem silly nowadays to listen to what other little kids say but back then this confused the hell out of me to the point I develop anxiety. It hit me pretty hard because at the time my parents were fighting over custody over me and my siblings so I was already heartbroken as it was at the time. So adding the confusion of these pot stories wasn’t helping. I know it wasn’t the worst situation someone could be in but I was pretty mentally exhausting for a child.