If you haven’t been keeping up with your British boy-band gossip, I have some news that might shock you to your core: two members of One Direction, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, filmed a video of themselves smoking a joint while on tour in Lima, Peru. Marijuana! Two rich 20-somethings smoked pot! Plenty of One Direction fans have predictably lost their minds, with many taking to social media to share their disgust and disappointment with the band members, some even saying they have ripped up or even burned their tickets to upcoming One Direction concerts. It’s an interesting display of rabid pop fandom, for sure, but it makes me wonder: is it even that big of a deal that these two smoked a joint in the first place?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHwnOg_Le3w]
At least in Peru, Zayn and Louis are in the clear. Per the Daily Mail, who broke the story, “According to Peruvian law, possession of marijuana is not punishable if used for personal and immediate consumption in quantities not exceeding eight grams.” As the stigma of marijuana use (if you can even call it a “stigma,” which suggests that marijuana users are, like, victims) fades, with the decriminalization of the drug in pockets of the US and in various places around the globe, it’s fairly entertaining to watch teens across the world get incensed by this video. I suppose there is still some disagreement over whether or not smoking pot is that big of a deal, which I guess means it’s time to provide my official stance: it’s not. Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em, etc.
If this pair of singers have anything to apologize for, it’s filming a video in which they giggle about smoking weed in the first place. After all, it’s tough to normalize smoking marijuana if you’re going to brag about it as if it makes you a badass.
Consider this a call to global youth: it doesn’t. In fact, there’s something particularly obnoxious about bragging about getting high, as if millions of people aren’t already doing it pretty quietly. Here’s another message to teens, One Direction fans or otherwise: bragging about burning your expensive concert tickets only shows that you’re spoiled or stupid about money. Sell them! And before you start flipping out about what adults do to relax, perhaps consider the benefits of chilling out yourself.