DOSE:

smoked

Cannabis

(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

135 lb

I first smoked weed when I was 17, with my brother. Neither of us had done it before, and no one I knew was really into it at the time. We bought what I think was about a gram of some real dirt shwag from a sketchy kid at school for $10. Back then all I knew about was 'nick bags' and 'dimes' and such silly bullshit, weed that was all shwaggy or if it was some really low mids they sold it by the 'blunt' and gave it names like Blueberry and Lob and Chocolate. But it got me high somehow, except for the first time, which didn't do shit really, and I fell totally in love with it. I started smoking like two or three times a month. After a few months another friend and I started doing it together about once a week or so, and then two or three times a week. I never smoked very much at a time, usually enough to just catch a good buzz and go about my business, since I lived at home and my parents were ALWAYS home. Most of the time I would smoke up, take a shower and chill in my room and then go to bed, which I realize now was the biggest waste of the experience possible, but whatever.

I kept this up for about a year, my only bad experience being that my parents found the plants I was growing, which was some bullshit to deal with. After that I didn’t smoke for a month or so, but got back into it again as soon as I stopped worrying about it. I found that it was super easy to sell some and smoke at the same time and break even with no problem, so I kept that up to sustain my finances since I didn't have a job.

After high school I quit for a couple months fearing a drug test from a job I applied for, but after I got that out of the way and there were no worries about the job I started smoking every day on average, with maybe one day every two weeks or so that I didn’t. I started hanging out with some different people that all smoked a lot, and discovered the wonders of good weed. I moved out of my house, and after that I smoked every single day without fail for over a year. My tolerance was so high I could smoke 5 or 6 gravity bong hits, 5 or so more bong hits and then pass 3 or 4 bowls around and still be almost straight.

I tried to stop for a while so I could get my tolerance down a little, but it never lasted more than a day. The one time during this period that I smoked shitty weed I hadn’t smoked all day before I started and I smoked 4 huge J's consecutively and got nothing more than a headache.

Anyways, I was a pothead, in the definition sense of the term I suppose. I've never eaten a whole pizza in one sitting, or sat around drooling and thinking Phish is the greatest shit ever, or any of that Cheech and Chong shit. I'm not part of any 'stoner culture' shit, I don't have any problems with my memory or concentration that weren't there before, if anything it helped my anxiety problems and sense of well being more than anything.

Then last month my utopia came crashing down, when the union I work out of told me I had to go the same day to take a random drug test. I freaked out. I was able to put it off for two days by telling them I was sick, during which I drank more water than was probably healthy, and then I got a cleansing product, and went to go take the test. I had never had to test before, and I heard from other people that went to it that they patted you down really well and such, so I was afraid of trying to substitute urine and getting cought.

I followed the directions for it IMPLICITLY, hadn't smoked for over 2 days before using it, etc. It didn't work. I failed at 61 ng/ml, with the cutoff at 15 ng/ml. I thought it was probably because of the super high levels of THC in my system and was blaming myself for my own stupidity. The union sent me to a rehab program, which turned out to be a super fucked up methadone clinic. I decided for my own information that I would use the testing they did there to try to gather some data, so I got super high the day before I went for my first test. The results were >300 ng/ml which is a typical level of a daily/ heavy smoker. I tested again a week later, having done absolutely nothing out of the ordinary to prepare besides not smoking and drinking a liter bottle of water about an hour before the test and I tested negative. That was definitely a short time to be able to get clean, and I'm sure its not going to be like that for everyone. I'm really skinny and have a very high metabolism.

Anyway, the union forced my employer to fire me (They didn't want to and had never had a problem with me) and suspended me from being able to work for 30 days. They refuse to pay for the cost of the 'treatment,' which their drug policy was supposed to cover. In fact they will not even provide any written document at all regarding the policy, which was added to our contract over a year ago, they actually do not even have a copy of the contract available yet. They do, however, collect 10 cents per hour from every man working out of our local to fund this program.

Hopefully I will be able to go back to work soon, and I have no intention of quitting smoking weed or using any other drugs for that matter. I own my body, and no company, union, or anyone else has the right to tell me what to do with it. I was NEVER under the influence of anything at work, out of respect for the safety of myself and my co workers, and what I do in my free time is no one's business but my own. I will never again violate my personal standards and freedom by pissing in anyone's cup, and whatever the consequences may be, I will accept them.

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 41224
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 29, 2007	Views: 12,836
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Cannabis (1), Drug Testing (59) : General (1), Not Applicable (38)