Afroman's 2000 hit, Because I Got High, should be banned from UC Santa Cruz, as its main message is to smoke marijuana, which breaks school policy. Implemented on January 1, 2014, all UC campuses became smoke & tobacco free campuses, along with any UC owned properties. There is a large amount of influence to break this policy through social media and music. Throughout the song, Afroman mentions skipping obligations because he smoked pot and got high. This happened to him because pot releases endorphins in one's brain, and a possible side effect is laziness, possibly the most common side effect, which is why students should not be influenced to try the drug. Now that marijuana is legal in California, it is likely that there will be more
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Afroman shows the negative effects of marijuana when he sings, "It's like... I don't care about nothin' man, roll another blunt..." followed by the line, "I was gonna clean my room until I got high, I was gonna get up and find the broom... but then I got high". (Afroman, Because I Got High). He makes his point in the fact that he can't complete a task, such as cleaning his room, after smoking pot. When students start to smoke marijuana because they hear their favorite artists singing or rapping about it, schools become an unsafe zone, as there are a lot of harmful effects of marijuana on a school campus. In today's music, "about 14 percent of songs spoke of marijuana use, 24 percent depicted alcohol use, and another 12 percent included reference to other substances." (Parker-Pope, New York Times Blogs). Peer pressure to smoke is common among the youth, along with students who try to sell drugs to other students. According to drugabuse.gov, "Statistics show that about 15 percent, or roughly 1 in 7 teens, report using marijuana in the past month," and that "In 2011, nearly 4.2 million people 12 and older had a marijuana abuse or addiction problem." (Volkow, National Institute of Health). By banning Afroman's hit, it may prevent someone from falling into a wrong path, as they might not be interested in trying it since they won't hear the
Afroman shows the negative effects of marijuana when he sings, "It's like... I don't care about nothin' man, roll another blunt..." followed by the line, "I was gonna clean my room until I got high, I was gonna get up and find the broom... but then I got high". (Afroman, Because I Got High). He makes his point in the fact that he can't complete a task, such as cleaning his room, after smoking pot. When students start to smoke marijuana because they hear their favorite artists singing or rapping about it, schools become an unsafe zone, as there are a lot of harmful effects of marijuana on a school campus. In today's music, "about 14 percent of songs spoke of marijuana use, 24 percent depicted alcohol use, and another 12 percent included reference to other substances." (Parker-Pope, New York Times Blogs). Peer pressure to smoke is common among the youth, along with students who try to sell drugs to other students. According to drugabuse.gov, "Statistics show that about 15 percent, or roughly 1 in 7 teens, report using marijuana in the past month," and that "In 2011, nearly 4.2 million people 12 and older had a marijuana abuse or addiction problem." (Volkow, National Institute of Health). By banning Afroman's hit, it may prevent someone from falling into a wrong path, as they might not be interested in trying it since they won't hear the