Justin Pasene

Photo Credit: Joe Budd

“They tried to make weed a dangerous drug, but it’s an herb, it heals.”

My name is Justin Pasene. I'm from San Francisco, Hunters Point, Bay View District.

I definitely got searched by the police a few times. When I was in high school, that was when it happened the most. It would be good times, just chill. I was rolling around with friends, just enjoying ourselves, smoking.

But we’d get pulled over and the police would say they smelled marijuana in the car so they could do a full search and seizure. You know how they do. They were definitely profiling us, that's what I think. We were just a bunch of friends enjoying ourselves, trying to look for something fun, not hurting anyone, but as soon as they smell marijuana they’d treat you like a criminal.

They tried to make weed a dangerous drug, they damn near put the marijuana next to cocaine like they’re the same thing, but they’re not. Marijuana is a natural plant. That's how I look at it. It's an herb, you know, it heals people.

Now, it's not for everybody. I think of it like 80-20. 80 percent of people, it’s just good. The 20 percent, there are just some people who can't handle it, end up taking too much or don’t react well to it. I have never had an episode like that, so for me, it’s just all good. That's the only bad thing I have to say about marijuana. Other than that, it's healthy, especially with people with cancer and illnesses like that. You know?

I think all the laws should be dropped, people in the jails should be go, cases dropped. No one’s ever overdosed and died on marijuana, it's not harming anybody - like I said, it heals. If you look at the cannabis in stores and the stuff on the street, it's basically the same thing, there’s just tax involved.

Now that it's a bunch of hipsters in San Francisco smoking it’s not as big of a deal, but before, the police wanted to treat everyone with marijuana like a ruthless drug dealer. Overall, there's not too much enforcement nowadays. It's looked at like more of a friendly thing, a social thing, which it was back in the day too, but now the government is getting money. That’s the difference.