DOSE: T+ 0:00	60 mg	oral	Pharms - Citalopram	(daily)
T+ 0:00	60 mg	oral	Amphetamines	(daily)
T+ 0:00	125 mg	smoked	Products - Spice-Like Smoking Blends	(plant material)
T+ 168:00	1.5 bowls	smoked	Products - Spice-Like Smoking Blends	(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

140 lb

This details my two somewhat negative experiences with Spice-type products.

Marijuana is simply lovely. However, I consider Spice to be the lovely Mary Jane's psychotic sister that stays locked in the attic, chained to a pole and wearing a muzzle. Spice is what all your relatives are whispering about at family reunions. I want to share this because although some individuals seem to have a nice experience, I and other contributors have had nightmares.

I smoked a half a bowl (a mere eighth of a gram of fluffy herbal shake) of the product called Spike Silver, the weakest of that brand. A week later, I smoked a bowl and a half of Posh, a Damiana and JWH-018 cocktail. Both of these brands fall under the category of Spice-herbs with synthesized cannabinoids mixed in.

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**For those of you who don't feel like reading my verbose account, scroll down to my more concise summary at the end.**
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'Victim' history: I am a 22 year old female, and a heavy pot smoker (5+ years). I smoke about a pack of cigarettes a day, and take 60mg of Celexa (citalopram) a day. I also take 60mg of Adderall XR every 8 hours that I am awake. Possibly the Adderall and the antidepressant caused my horrible experience, but I'm unsure.

Some background: I work at a head shop, and we sell a few varieties of herbal potpourri incense, not for human consumption. I'd never heard of it, but my interest was piqued due to the thousands of dollars in sales a day this Spice generated. We sell Spike (silver, gold, diamond and max, listed weakest to strongest).

It was a calm Thursday with a weak flow of customers. At about 4:00 in the afternoon, an hour before my shift ended, my boss offered to let me try some of her Spike Silver. She and a coworker had each smoked a bowl, and they seemed to be relaxed and stoned... a pleasant reaction. I'm low on funds, so if offered a substance by the boss that's reputed to be legal cannabis... well, it's legal, how bad can it be? How horribly wrong I was. At this point, I had no idea that this product had the chemical JWH-018, nor that this fluffy pile of herb would have anything beyond a placebo effect. I expected almost nothing, perhaps a slight high from power of suggestion... although the high sales volume set off a faint alarm somewhere deep in my gut.

Out in my boss's car, behind the building, I had half a bowl of Spike Silver-mind you, this is the weakest available, and many customers say they have smoked the Silver and felt nothing. Boss-lady assured me it would 'fuck me up' (accompanied by Beavis and Butthead laughter). I should have paid attention to that, because she's the type that seems to lose IQ when stoned, and I can't stop my philosophical rants about the nature of the universe and religion. Hence my half a bowl. With marijuana, I typically smoke two or three bowls at a time, and it's high-grade homegrown I-feel-like-a-goddess bud. Keep in mind that my boss had smoked four times as much as I was about to consume (about 1/2 gram for her, and about 1/8 of a gram for me-fluffy shake consistency), and she seemed relaxed, almost in a happy stupor.

It burned fast, and like a practiced stoner, I held it in as long as I could... and it wasn't harsh, so I took large hits. I became chatty and extrapolated on various esoteric topics for the first 5-10 minutes (confusing the shit out of her until I summarized), which is exactly what I do when smoking marijuana. We left the car and headed toward the building. I started to feel strange, and the chatty ebullience I associate with a good stone rapidly dissipated. I stood in the store talking to my coworkers and felt like my body was vibrating slowly in waves toward the floor, and these waves were being pulled through me and down into the ground. I sat.

My heart raced, and seemed to double its speed, and my chest hurt. I felt dizzy and slightly headachy, but I was detached from the head pain. VERY dissociative.

Here is what I thought happened: I was sitting for 30 minutes. My boss slyly told me some scheme about how to steal shoes from the store that is connected to us (same owner for both stores), and rambled on about a plan. I became more and more confused... thinking 'what the hell? She's a good person, I don't think she would rip off the owner, and besides, the store next to us is going out of business and they're all size 12 stripper shoes...' My coworker listened to her, smiled and nodded. I then became extremely uncomfortable with this talk of stealing and deceit (I'm paranoid and a strong believer in karma). I decided to pretend like I hadn't heard a word she said and said 'What's going on?' a few times.

Here is what actually happened: I was sitting for five minutes. My boss was talking to my coworker about getting the owner to replace a broken case. I told her I hadn't understood anything, and that sentences didn't make sense (true, I was having difficulty stringing more than two words together). She giggled because she thought I was just stoned, and said she was just mumbling about unimportant things--I was extremely paranoid AND delusional.

Exactly 10 minutes after I finished smoking, my lady parts felt funny. Translation: my clitoris throbbed and burned for about three minutes, like I had just spent an hour masturbating. It went away as quickly as it came, like flipping a switch.

I was drinking a cola. It tasted bizarre, like sticky foul chemicals... it coated my mouth and tongue. I went outside to have a cigarette. I smoked it so fast that the cherry burned faster than the paper by about a centimeter (stupid fire-safe cigarettes). It tasted bizarre, but the familiar action of smoking seemed to help... I had to focus on standing there, inhaling the smoke, tapping the ash, and it took about 20 tries to light the fucker.

Back inside, I asked my boss if there was something else in the stuff I smoked... because I felt almost like I was coming off of a psyclobin (shroom) trip-when the trip isn't fun because it's almost gone but you aren't sober. She looked at me strangely and said no. I was ringing up a customer and she was near me trying to fill a lighter with lighter fluid, and she couldn't get it to light. It was full and the lighter was damp with the crap. She kept trying to spark it, but it wouldn't work. I was convinced she was trying to set me on fire because I heard her talk about stealing shit and didn't go along with it. I was so completely sure of it. I almost panicked.

I continued to help customers until the end of my shift, an hour after I smoked (5:00). I was moving so slowly, it felt, and everyone was getting pissed, and it was a struggle to complete normal tasks. After I clocked out, I explained to my coworkers that I felt paranoid that I was doing everything wrong and was freaking out. They told me I was acting completely normal! What the fuck. But then they figured out I was tripping, and helped me ride it out, and I sat down and drank lots of water.

My mind seemed to be sped up, and my heart raced. Everything seemed slightly blurry, like it was vibrating... but I couldn't see it moving, just the slight doubling of everything. Music seemed to be coming from another world, ghostly and tinny, rising from hell (it was top 40 rap, and I don't enjoy listening to semi-rhythmic stuttering over badly remixed 80's pop music). I finally came down about 6:45, and felt exhausted and drained.

I felt sick and weak for the rest of the night and felt out of sorts the next day, and extremely frightened that something costing 15 dollars a gram and being sold to the general public could do this to me.


Part Two-- 'Posh' Spice... not just a British pop star.

Exactly a week later--oddly enough at the same time, 4:00--I smoked a bowl and a half of a product called Posh. It said 100% Damiana on the sticker. I know about that stuff. I was open to it. I should have paid attention when my coworker said that it was like Spike but mellower, but assumed she was basing it on her calm stoned reaction she shared with my boss. Further perusal of the PoshpartyUSA website indicates that yeah, it likely has the JWH-018.

It was weaker than the Spike, and I didn't trip as hard, but I was pissed at myself for falling into this hole again and made a conscious effort to stay calm and not freak out. I also knew what to expect.

It came on the same way: so many thoughts manifesting as verbal diarrhea, like with pot. And then came the feeling glued to the floor. And then, precisely 10 minutes later, intense random clitoral stimulation for about 3 minutes. Time was freaky, but I expected it and dealt with it. I was paranoid, but I didn't fall as hard into that paranoid delusional state--I was able to tell myself that no, everyone isn't talking about you and your psycho reactions. I was slightly happy that I was able to recognize what was going on... sort of an 'Oh shit, here we go again... ugh' reaction.

It was almost pleasant. I sat outside the building, leaning against the sun-baked window while a cool breeze swirled and I chain-smoked. It would have been okay if not for my fear of embarrassing myself at work, and the fact that if I isolated myself for too long I would lose it. It lasted the same amount of time, about two and a half hours or so, and I didn't feel as weak or sick after, thankfully.

I still was pissed, because I had to use every ounce of willpower to force myself to have a happy time. At least this time I knew I was tripping and could help myself out a little bit, but shit, was it hard. I didn't want to revisit that place again until I knew how much of the synthesized THC I was having, and there I was, back in the Spice vortex. It was negative because although I didn't freak out as bad or externalize the way I was feeling, I still was wracked with intense paranoia, confusion and near psychosis. And my heart! It pounded like mad, just as before, and my chest ached.

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In summation (finally):

If I knew how much JWH-018 (and how much, if any other chemicals) were present, and had it at home in a safe, comforting environment... maybe it would have been better?

Basically, for me, even a small amount causes a negative psychedelic trip. It is completely unlike psyclobin or any other psychedelic I have tried. It was bizarre and unsettling, and even the second (accidental) time it took every fiber of my being not to dissolve into paranoid delusions and panic. This is important to note because the second time I was not afraid, just a bit annoyed, so it's unlikely my negative reaction was motivated entirely by perpetuating the effects by being scared and freaking out.


Negative:
-Confusion
-Auditory hallucinations
-Inability to recognize hallucinations versus actual speech from others
-intense paranoia
-racing heartbeat, chest pain
-time distortions
-taste distortions
-bizarre body sensations (like a wave going through me, pulling me down)
-verge of panic
-inability to string more than two words in a spoken sentence together
-strange visual blurring

Positive:
-Potential for decent music experiences
-I appreciated the warmth of the sun and the blue of the sky intensely

Neutral:
-Random sexual arousal (yes, neutral, and somewhat amusing)
-chatty
-dissociative effects (fine under a controlled environment, for me, when I know it's coming)

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 85846
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 22
Published: Aug 13, 2010	Views: 23,343
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