The Class of Frozen Addicts

“It’s not all just molecules,” I want to tell her, the woman talking monotonously about the chemical properties of opiates and caffeine. It’s not all pka and routes of administration. It’s a ritual. There’s more to smoking pot than routing molecules of delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinal to the vascular depths of the lungs—it adds a social element. And she’s never used a psychoactive in her life.