If You Hate Everybody Here, Why Are You Here?

The cannabis community is supposed to be many things.

It can be competitive. It can be loud. It can be opinionated. People are going to disagree about strains, brands, growers, products, events and just about everything else under the sun.

But at its best, a community is still a community.

That means there has to be some level of mutual respect.

And lately, there is something I have been thinking about—not because I want to start drama, and certainly not because I want to write a hit piece about anyone. In fact, the entire reason I am writing this without using a name is because I do not believe in publicly humiliating people for the sake of entertainment.

This is about a pattern.

There is a person in our cannabis community who, from what I and many others have witnessed, seems to have a negative comment for almost everybody.

Post about somebody? There is a negative comment.

Mention somebody’s accomplishment? There is a criticism.

Share something positive about a person in the industry? Somehow, here comes another insult, another complaint, another unnecessary shot.

And after watching this happen repeatedly, I have to ask a question:

If you genuinely dislike nearly everyone in a community, why are you trying so hard to be part of it?

That is not sarcasm. I honestly want to understand it.

Smoking cannabis alone does not automatically make us a community. Community requires people. Relationships. Shared experiences. Support. Respect. Even disagreement can be healthy—but there is a difference between having an opinion and making hostility your entire personality.

You do not have to like everyone. Nobody does.

You do not have to agree with everyone. Thank God, because if we all agreed on everything, we’d have no comments section and half of Facebook would immediately go out of business.

But if every conversation turns into an opportunity to insult somebody, attack somebody, embarrass somebody or remind the world how much you dislike somebody, eventually people have to ask what is really going on.

And before anyone misunderstands me, this article is not written from a place of hatred.

Actually, it is quite the opposite.

I believe people can be carrying pain that the rest of us cannot see. People can be dealing with difficult relationships, stressful circumstances, loneliness, trauma, personal struggles or things that happened long before we ever met them. None of us knows the entire story behind another person’s behavior.

That is one of the reasons I try not to judge people too quickly.

But understanding someone and excusing everything they do are not the same thing.

You can have compassion for someone while still setting boundaries.

You can feel sorry for someone’s struggles while also saying, “You do not get to use your pain as permission to mistreat everyone around you.”

That is where I think we sometimes get confused.

Kindness does not mean becoming somebody’s punching bag.

Acceptance does not mean accepting abuse.

Compassion does not mean pretending harmful behavior is harmless.

And free speech absolutely does not mean anyone else is required to provide an unlimited audience for repeated personal attacks.

I believe strongly in free speech. That is one reason I have chosen not to block people simply because they disagree with me or say something I do not like. I do not want to surround myself with people who only tell me what I want to hear.

Criticism is part of life.

But there is a huge difference between constructive criticism and constantly tearing down the people around you.

One helps people grow.

The other just spreads misery.

So if you are reading this and thinking, “I wonder if OG Strain is talking about me?”—well, I am not going to name anyone.

But here is what I will say:

If you know that you regularly attack people unprovoked, insult people who have done nothing to you, and find yourself unable to say something positive about almost anyone in the community, then maybe this article is worth thinking about.

Not because you should be ashamed.

Because you can change.

Try being nice.

Seriously. Just try it.

Try congratulating somebody when they succeed.

Try scrolling past something instead of attacking the person who posted it.

Try disagreeing without making it personal.

Try giving someone the same grace you probably hope people will give you when you are having a bad day.

You might be surprised by what happens.

Because the energy we put into the world has a way of coming back around. Call it karma, the law of attraction, cause and effect, or just common sense—if you constantly put negativity into every room you enter, eventually people are going to expect negativity whenever you arrive.

And then you may begin to wonder why everyone is negative toward you.

Sometimes, we have to look honestly at what we are putting out there.

If you put out kindness, kindness is more likely to find you.

If you put out respect, people are more likely to respect you.

If you put out constant hostility, insults and bitterness, eventually that is the energy that will surround you.

And at that point, you cannot blame everyone else forever.

The truth is, life is too short to wake up every day angry at people who may not even know you are angry at them.

It is too short to spend your time searching for another person to criticize.

It is too short to be miserable for sport.

And it is definitely too short to become known in a community primarily as the person everybody expects to start a fight in the comments.

That is not a legacy.

That is exhausting.

The cannabis community already has enough people outside of it judging us, criticizing us and telling us who we are supposed to be. We do not need to spend every day doing the same thing to each other.

We can disagree.

We can debate.

We can have different opinions.

We can even occasionally get on each other’s nerves—because let’s be honest, if you’re in this industry long enough, somebody is eventually going to annoy the hell out of you.

But we should still remember that there are human beings behind the usernames.

And if someone is genuinely struggling, I hope they seek support and allow trusted people to help them. Statements about not wanting to be alive should always be taken seriously, not used as a weapon in an argument or dismissed as “just drama.”

There is no shame in needing help.

There is no shame in changing.

And there is no shame in admitting that the way you have been treating people is not the way you want to continue living.

Second chances matter.

Growth matters.

But growth begins when we are willing to look in the mirror.

So this is not a hit piece.

This is an invitation.

To the person who feels this article might be about them: You do not have to leave the community. You do not have to become best friends with everybody. You do not even have to suddenly agree with people you dislike.

Just try being kind.

Try it for a day.

Then another.

And see what happens.

Because if you truly cannot find anything you like about anyone in a community, if every person is an enemy and every success deserves an insult, then maybe the problem is not the entire community.

Maybe it is time to look inward.

And if you are someone who recognizes exactly who I am talking about without me ever having to say a name, then I hope you take something from this article too.

Do not turn this into another opportunity for gossip.

Do not attack that person.

Do not send them hateful messages.

That would completely miss the point.

The answer to negativity is not more negativity.

The answer is accountability, boundaries, compassion and, whenever possible, growth.

At the end of the day, we are all putting something into this community.

The question is:

What are you putting into it?

Because eventually, whether we realize it or not, people remember how we made them feel.

So if you are going to be part of a community, be part of it.

Support someone.

Encourage someone.

Disagree without destroying someone.

And when you are tempted to leave another cruel, unnecessary comment, maybe stop for just one second and ask yourself:

“What am I really putting out into the world?”

Then choose something better.

I promise you—kindness is a lot easier to carry than hate.