I cannot inhale smoke.
I recall none of it.
My Mom smoked almost constantly; the smell made me sick. I could not stay in the same room when she lit up. Family car rides featured me hanging my head out the window to get a bit of somewhat less polluted air to breathe. In the winter, when my parents deemed it too cold for that, I’d sit with my shirt over my nose and mouth in a futile attempt to escape the fumes of the evil addiction that eventually killed her.
When I realized that marijuana was a thing, I resisted for a long time because I knew that my lungs and smoke would not get along. Eventually, late in my college days, I broke down and gave it a try. The results were as I had predicted; a lot of choking and no fun at all.
During a night of partying just before graduation, a young lady with a stash helpfully suggested that I add some weed to a cup of tea. We were in her room in the dorm, so she had all the makings to hand. We brewed up, and I added the pot to my cup. In fact, I added an entire generous joint to my cup.
I didn’t realize then that this was a HUGE overdose. When you smoke it, the room gets way more THC than you do.
I drank the tea. We hung around in her room with some friends for a while, then we all left to visit other friends at other parties. It was the end of college for most of us; there were many parties. When we left, I was feeling…nothing. No effect at all.
Marijuana, when ingested, takes considerably longer to make it into your blood stream than when smoked. It also takes longer to wear off. Additionally, having been metabolized by your liver (as is anything you take orally) it is chemically altered from pure THC to…other things.
Soon after we arrived at the first party, I blacked out. An odd blackout, because later, various friends told me that for several hours, I went from room to room, party to party, drinking beers, dancing and generally having a great time. Several people mentioned that I seemed considerably less morose than normal. I recall none of it. That night I forever lost three hours out of my memory.
I came back to reality quite abruptly. I heard a banging noise and my roommate Alan’s voice calling my name. There was an odd feeling in my face and lips, because the editor of our school paper, with whom I had never had a hint of a relationship, was for some reason attempting to suck my tongue out of my head.
I broke free of her grasp and answered the door. Alan said that he had grown concerned when I suddenly disappeared from the last party, so he went looking. Someone had told him that I had last been seen with Tara, so he tried her room first.
I didn’t give pot another try for forty-two years!
Dave VentreA hyper-annuated wannabee scientist with a lovely wife and a mountain biking problem.
Great story, well-told Dave, with the right amount of ambiguity, then BANG; DETAILS! I, too, have never smoked a cigarette in my life (I’m a singer, just amateur, but still, I value my lungs). My dad gave it up during a bout of the flu when I was young, so I wasn’t around second-hand smoke much, but I knew it irritated my contact-lens wearing eyes terribly.
I couldn’t escape weed when I got to Brandeis, but my first attempt had no effect on me. For my first “high”, read my story for this prompt. Your story is priceless.
100% agree about smoking, so pot was not my thing either. Someone gave me a brownie laced with marijuana without telling me when I was pregnant. That was my last encounter with pot or that “friend.” Although, maybe for sleep and arthritis pain…
Great story, Dave! I never had the pleasure of pot-tea (at the part-tee) but enough high powered weed that I learned to just stay away from it. Can you say paranoia, class? It took me a while to relax enough to reap the benefits of CBD oil…no THC, and great for, as Laurie mentioned, sleep and arthritis pain.
Funny followup; it’s legal here now, so what with all the anxiety inherent to These Times, we’ve given it a shot, in the form of gummies or tinctures. Knowing what can happen if I overdo it, I started working up from minimal doses. Nothing. Then nothing again. A third increase; nothing. I got impatient then, so I tried a slightly bigger increase, but still not close to what is considered a high dose.
I spent four unpleasant hours of nausea and vomiting (bizarre because my stomach was fine; my brain was simply telling me to vomit – a VERY strange sensation), distressing physical disorientation which forced me to crawl because if I tried to stand I’d get sick or fall over (it felt like I was 30 feet tall. In fact, this sensation of being too tall was the first sign that things were going awry). And a strange sort of hallucinatory state that I cannot put into words, mainly involving color flashes that were in my mind but not in my vision, which means nothing but that is how it was. I wound up spending a few hours curled up on the large dog bed at the foot of our bed.
It was MUCH worse that what happened in 1978! I think that from now on I am going to stick with a shot of tequila in the evenings.
Wow, Dave! I’ve read that gastrointestinal effects are not uncommon, but what you experienced is beyond that. I’d stick with the tequila…just don’t eat the [legendary] worm.
Glad you weathered that bad trip Dave!
Here’s a less worrisome marijuana story. When our son was 15 or so we took him to his first rock concert – Giant Stadium to hear Bon Jovi. We noticed he was engaged in conversation with some older kids in the seats next to him. Later he told us they had offered him a joint but he had to refuse and explain to them he was with his folks.
Years later when he had become a real Phish fan he once returned the favor. For our anniversary he gifted us with 2 tix to a Phish concert – and in the envelope were 2 joints.
Very cool kids!
I need to remember a story about my maternal grandmother. She gave me rolling papers as a going away gift when I went to college. Never told her that I had no use for ’em!