For those who saw my most recent post, I submitted my thesis yesterday. For me that was cause for celebration. I kicked back last night with a glass of red wine and a reefah, in the aim to just fully unwind and let my mind wander without the expectation and burden of feeling like I have to do more Uni work.

Drug experiences are subjective and cause different reactions/feelings in everyone. So I can only talk for myself. For me, cannabis is a double edged sword. On one hand I feel as though I am less productive, especially when doing monotonous mundane jobs. But on the other hand, I feel more connected and in tune with my body and can literally feel the areas that need work/stretching and that in turn makes me more active about getting up and doing something about it. Additionally, it creates a lot more introspective thoughts and my brain makes connections that sober Ben just simply doesn't make. Sounds stereotypical I know, but to me those things are priceless.

Okay back to point you are all here. While high last night I tried to imagine what humanity would have likely achieved in the future. I picked a date, the year 2030. I was brainstorming for quite some time and eventually came up with my top 3 prediction that I believe will become a reality by that year. For some these might seem outlandish and way too optimistic, but here goes:

1 - Humans will be an interplanetary species.

With the birth of private commercial rocket manufacturers such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, space travel is booming with lots of capitalist players wanting a chunk of the action. This will boost innovation and drastically reduce the price of going to space, making it financially viable

My Prediction:

• Man will not only go back to the moon but will also establish a moon base (yup you heard that right, colonization of the moon!)
• The first manned mission to mars will take place

2 - The war on drugs era will cease to exist almost globally

Drug prohibition was one of the most detrimental moves governments and lawmakers have ever put in place, off the top of my head i'd say only the federal reserve act is worse. All evidence shows if we want to reduce drug harm, if we genuinely want to stop the deaths so frequently invoked, we must decriminalise drug users and resource their support. Canada being the first G7 country to legalise weed will serve as a catalyst in drug law reform. Awareness and education is key, people will start to see through the scaremongering tactics and propaganda spread by journalists and their government.

My prediction:

• 6 of the G7 Countries will legalise cannabis for recreational use (the exception is maybe Japan)
• Decriminalisation of all drugs will take place in at least 20 different countries.

3 - Cryptocurrencies will go mainstream

This one will not be a surprise to many steemians as most of you are a lot more cypto savvy than your average Joe. Widespread adoption, however, is difficult to gauge and even harder to quantify by putting a number on it. For the purposes of this prediction, I will just use the amount of bitcoin wallets in existence including the amount of unique cryptocurrency users by the year 2030. For some background, there are currently 22 million bitcoin wallets in the world today according to some sources source. Realistically, we know this number is much less as many hodlers have more than one wallet. There is also believed to be between 2.9 and 5.8 million cryptocurrency users worldwide source. If we go with the upper end of that estimate at 5.8 million that's still a measly 0.075% of the worlds population.

My prediction:

• There will be 1 billion bitcoin wallets (many more if you include all cryptocurrency wallets)
• 1 Bitcoin will be worth at least $1,000,000 USD (I'm being conservative 😉)
• Cryptocurrency users will surpass the 5% adoption threshold worldwide (at least 385 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet)

I'd love to hear others thoughts on what we will have accomplished by the year 2030 or even any other year of your choosing? Don't hesitate to leave your thoughts in the comments below!