The Cannabis Closet: Chickening Out

A reader writes:

To add to the chorus, I'm a 20 y.o college student with a 3.4 GPA, a 1490 on my GRE (I even smoked the day before), plans to go to grad school, and a great starting job in my field. I'm not bragging, just saying that occasional pot use doesn't make someone a complete loser overnight.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing is that I'm finding that being open about my pot use is much more difficult that I thought. I had a chance today, and I blew it. To graduate I have to take a freshmen orientation class, and the topic today was stress relief. At the mention of this topic, half the class began snickering and saying things like, "Oh, I'll just listen to Bob Marley to relax." Even the professor got in on it. But no one, including me, came out and said, "Hey, I smoke pot to relax sometimes, how about you guys?", even though I know for a fact that several of my classmates partake. As soon as the topic of discussion changed, I regretted the missed opportunity.