DOSE:

smoked

Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

170 lb

I just have a few reflections on my personal experiences with smoking weed. I began a few years ago, starting with good friends and always having really great, memorable experiences. Over time, some of my friends have remained avid non-smokers, while the others have gotten very into the habit. We generally just hang out and chill like doing whatever, and at some point us smoker's go out and toke up. I don't think any of us ever began to see it as a divide in our friendship, in fact I was actively engaged in a rock band with 3 of these guys and we had produced an EP and had been playing shows fairly regularly around town. The drummer began the ganj shortly after I did, while our other two members never felt the desire to try it.

Like I said, the weed didn't really divide my group of friends or band. Everyone just suddenly got really busy at once, people getting jobs and girlfriends so we didnt chill or practice nearly as much. Meanwhile I had begun to smoke more and more, and getting better shit too. So when everyone got together it was later because it had to be after people's work, and so some of us were usually blazed. It still seemed great and really fun like the older days, but I definately started to feel bored at times, which surprised me. I mean these were like my best friends and all. But I think Marijuana, as awesome and relatively harmless a drug it, needs to have more of the adverse effects of very heavy use expunged. I wont say any sappy psychobabble shit about letting Marijuana replace the great times I remembered so much... but just hanging out with my friends non-stoned could seem almost like a daunting task sometimes. I spent a lot of time during the day at a job where I didn't really talk to anyone so I would have a lot of time to smoke and think by myself. My thought patterns began to be significantly altered from what I now remember them to be prior to my heavy, heavy smoking.

Basically I probably smoked everyday for the last year with only a few 2 or 3-day gaps scattered around. I noticed I had begun to write fewer songs, but this may also be attributed to the band's long periods of inactivity and my work, which took energy out of me. I think I may have been more prone to leaving things half finished, however. Another thing is that a few of my friends who were smoking significantly more than me really began to become noticeably affected mentally by their habit. It was sad to see people I had known just a year or two ago performing at a level far below their capabilities. For myself, I began to realize that my memory began to be seriously affected, at least by my standards because I can usually remember things very well, including date, people, events. But I found that pinning dates to events and people began to be much harder. When I didn't smoke for almost a week because I was out of town, I noticed a very significant increase in my mental speed and ability to recall things. During my first non-stoned time in quite a while I noticed distinctly abnormal physiological responses in my body. I had frequent, short headaches, tiredness, random anxiety, and even blurred vision at times, when objects would sort of dissociate in my vision.

Anyways, more and more I was having the nagging suspicion that being constantly stoned was not the best path my life should be going in. I had another 4-day break soon after the other one, and actually really enjoyed the sensation of “normalness.” However when I got back again I already had some awesome buds and then immediately ran into some even better shit. So I was toking like mad, and actually feeling gloomy and lethargic during the short non-stoned periods in my day. I resolved to not buy anymore, and rolled the rest of my shit into a huge chronic blunt. I smoked this with two lightweight (in terms of smoking status and actual weight) girls. You’d think I’d get ripped off my ass and have a really great grand finally, but actually I only had a medium level high, and was really fucking tired in a few hours because of the huge amounts of THC in my body. This just made me more resolved to take a break, and I was happy to be able to go several days while not out of town and not smoke at all. I was really enjoying not being high all the time, and my sober mind-frame was much more likely to consider the stuffs hefty price tag to seriously think about scoring more.

So I’ve been so far successfully staggering my smoking in days on non-smoking, and only smoking once or twice in a day when I do. It eventually gets to the point where I am just wasting money to be high every damn second. Just taking one day off creates a huge improvement in the experience. I've found that getting exercise every day is pretty important to successfully ward off weed cravings as well...

So I guess the point of this whole account is just the statement in the title. At first I never felt any problems from the weed and saw it as only improving my life and things I did. But I found that it’s a much more slippery drug than I had expected, and now I find myself regretting all of the money I spent on something I used up so fast and can’t remember that well... though I’m not pulling my hair out or anything. People should be cautious and yes… while it’s utter bullshit the stuff is illegal while alcohol is sipped and cigarettes smoked by fat fucking hypocritical politicians… I digress… it does have the potential to create some serious adverse effects in one's life. I dunno, maybe some people can smoke fat blunts of white widow all day long and be fine, but I would generally advise applying principles of moderation and balance after my experiences with this wonderful plant. So keep toking guys, but be careful. Peace.

Goozman

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 44961
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 25, 2007	Views: 45,098
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Cannabis (1) : Addiction & Habituation (10), Retrospective / Summary (11), Not Applicable (38)