For me, smoking weed ruined smoking weed. Loved it for the first two years and was absorbed in the culture. All the coolest people touted it as "natural," "spiritual," the cure all for all kinds of ills and wrongs in the world. I was packing bongs and pipes, slinging quarter bags and ounces, rolling hog legs etc. And then I got marijuana psychosis. Which is basically that paranoia you feel when high, but around the clock and boosting each day, week, month in a row you spend high. Spent 4 days in a psych ward. They didn't know wtf. They don't know wtf about anything. But I figured it was the weed. And sure enough, over months of sobriety sanity began to become my dominant mindset again. Years later I read Alex Berenson's book and realized this is a well known occurrence in the medical field! Marijuana psychosis. It's been documented for hundreds of years and is responsible for some of the most heinous violent acts you've ever heard of. The cool people weren't saying shit about that back in the day. Some friends they were. So, yeah. It felt like a nice escape from reality, a side adventure in a world that's hard to confront sometimes, but that downside is really down.
I remember the first time I ever had the crazy potent stuff in college: I didn't know what it was. It was fluffy and had reddish fuzz and smelled like a musky pine forest. I was puzzled when someone said "it's marijuana." Looked nothing like the stuff I was used to from High School days, semi-brown full of stems and seeds. I still miss that shitty weed, to be honest.
I haven't been "high" for 20 years. Rich hippies ruined pot
Now that it's legal the cool thing is growing it! Last summer I grew Moroccan Gold and AMS outdoors in organic soil with 50 gal smart pots. Smokes great, good in edibles, nice balanced high not crazy strong.
I like to do things on weed. Write substack articles, build my house, play VR games, etc! 👍
YES, all of this. Bring Back Ditch Weed. I heard someone at a dispensary whining about how awkward it is to be asked to tip the “budtender.” Like, back in my day, we had to climb through basement windows, dodge someone's weird uncle passed out on a LoveSac, and pray we didn’t have to endure a “just the tip” negotiation to score an eighth. You don’t know anything about awkward drug deals.
I do rideshare; I will get 2-3 young people in a row in the back of my car who’ve been smoking, and I have to roll down the windows to keep from getting a contact high.
I miss the old days.
Seriously though: this dispensary herb smells sour.
Weed was never my thing, but I think this is really well done as an introduction to disenchantment. Maybe a long hook, and at least one commentator disagrees with the discussion of weed and its use etc., which seems to me a distraction if perhaps a worthy one. But the key, for me anyway, is using youthful, modestly illicit, behavior to talk about the significance of experience, and perhaps the limits of rationality. Well done.
Thanks! I sat down to try and figure out why seeing these sleek, modern McDonalds looking dispensaries bums me out so much, and ended up here. Disenchantment is such a deep and multi-faceted topic, much to write about there.
Not ten minutes ago, while putting my nine year old to bed, he told me he’d found what his friend identified as a “drug device” in the woods—a plastic bottle with a foil-topped pen shoved into it. Creativity persists.
(Epilogue: I actually found said device on a walk, went “huh, I hope my kid doesn’t find this, better throw it away.” Evidently it was too late.)
I know your intent is at least partly humorous, but I disagree so hard with every aspect of this. I won't get into my whole autobiography, but some of the scariest physical situations I ever found myself in as a young woman involved trying to obtain illegal weed, and getting in trouble for smoking it *one time* in my dorm room -- by which I mean I only got caught once, despite all of my neurotic precautions -- led to what felt like world-ending levels of conflict with my parents and almost derailed my college career even though I was an academic high achiever at a fucking arts school.
Yes, it is easier for young people now to get high quality pot, so THC induced panic attacks are probably more common, and those suck. But it's also a lot easier to know what you're buying and, through trial and error, to figure out what gives your body pleasure, which in my opinion... matters? Getting high is not a placebo effect of "fearing legal consequences." For those of us who like it, getting high is fun, and interesting, and sensual, and although I know this is not the case for everyone, I've noticed that the intense paranoia I used to feel is *entirely* alleviated by knowing that I'm not entering a realm of criminality where others can scrutinize and report my behavior/appearance/scent to the authorities.
You are right that experimenting with weed no longer has to be a huge identity-defining risk. If you find that you like it and it enhances your creativity, makes you enjoy parties, helps you chill out, or eases your chronic pain, you don't feel like you have to choose between that preference and living an employed, productive life without secrecy. It's not "illicit." But I disagree that this is a bad thing. The bad thing is that I am no longer young. And yet: the other day, for the first time, I bought a pre-roll and walked it down the street in New York City smoking it before going into an art gallery to see a show I was excited about. I actually thought, if only 19-year-old me could see me now. I didn't think she would say I was cool because she never cared about being cool. She would just feel relieved.
I used to get the ick when I would be smoking weed with another kid and they'd bring up that they have "cool" parents who they smoke with.
You're not doing this to rebel? We aren't the same.
Any time I got high I tried to place myself as far away from my parents as possible
I used to smoke weed. My friend offered me some the other day and I said, “No thanks, it turns me gay.”
Recreational drug Requiem For A Dream
For me, smoking weed ruined smoking weed. Loved it for the first two years and was absorbed in the culture. All the coolest people touted it as "natural," "spiritual," the cure all for all kinds of ills and wrongs in the world. I was packing bongs and pipes, slinging quarter bags and ounces, rolling hog legs etc. And then I got marijuana psychosis. Which is basically that paranoia you feel when high, but around the clock and boosting each day, week, month in a row you spend high. Spent 4 days in a psych ward. They didn't know wtf. They don't know wtf about anything. But I figured it was the weed. And sure enough, over months of sobriety sanity began to become my dominant mindset again. Years later I read Alex Berenson's book and realized this is a well known occurrence in the medical field! Marijuana psychosis. It's been documented for hundreds of years and is responsible for some of the most heinous violent acts you've ever heard of. The cool people weren't saying shit about that back in the day. Some friends they were. So, yeah. It felt like a nice escape from reality, a side adventure in a world that's hard to confront sometimes, but that downside is really down.
Happy to hear you made it out the other side
I remember the first time I ever had the crazy potent stuff in college: I didn't know what it was. It was fluffy and had reddish fuzz and smelled like a musky pine forest. I was puzzled when someone said "it's marijuana." Looked nothing like the stuff I was used to from High School days, semi-brown full of stems and seeds. I still miss that shitty weed, to be honest.
I haven't been "high" for 20 years. Rich hippies ruined pot
Now that it's legal the cool thing is growing it! Last summer I grew Moroccan Gold and AMS outdoors in organic soil with 50 gal smart pots. Smokes great, good in edibles, nice balanced high not crazy strong.
I like to do things on weed. Write substack articles, build my house, play VR games, etc! 👍
DIY is very old school. Respect!
YES, all of this. Bring Back Ditch Weed. I heard someone at a dispensary whining about how awkward it is to be asked to tip the “budtender.” Like, back in my day, we had to climb through basement windows, dodge someone's weird uncle passed out on a LoveSac, and pray we didn’t have to endure a “just the tip” negotiation to score an eighth. You don’t know anything about awkward drug deals.
I miss mids
I do rideshare; I will get 2-3 young people in a row in the back of my car who’ve been smoking, and I have to roll down the windows to keep from getting a contact high.
I miss the old days.
Seriously though: this dispensary herb smells sour.
Whatever happened to “sweet leaf “?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W-zmtmgswHw
Weed was never my thing, but I think this is really well done as an introduction to disenchantment. Maybe a long hook, and at least one commentator disagrees with the discussion of weed and its use etc., which seems to me a distraction if perhaps a worthy one. But the key, for me anyway, is using youthful, modestly illicit, behavior to talk about the significance of experience, and perhaps the limits of rationality. Well done.
Thanks! I sat down to try and figure out why seeing these sleek, modern McDonalds looking dispensaries bums me out so much, and ended up here. Disenchantment is such a deep and multi-faceted topic, much to write about there.
leaving 420 911 on my dealers pager
The world you grew up in no longer exists
Greetings from holland. I grow my own mids and I know peeps prefer it over the perfect dank nuggets they buy at the shop
Good on you for keeping the dream alive.
Gotta keep my strain of ruderalis-adulterated rescue seedbombs alive. Heirloom ganja. We’ll need it in the times to come.
Not ten minutes ago, while putting my nine year old to bed, he told me he’d found what his friend identified as a “drug device” in the woods—a plastic bottle with a foil-topped pen shoved into it. Creativity persists.
(Epilogue: I actually found said device on a walk, went “huh, I hope my kid doesn’t find this, better throw it away.” Evidently it was too late.)
Nice to see DIY is still in style
I'm not against people doing drugs, but I hate that we've normalized doing drugs.
Exactly!
Nice. Speaking of last night's White Lotus / weed...
Haven’t watched it yet, will have to check it out tonight
I know your intent is at least partly humorous, but I disagree so hard with every aspect of this. I won't get into my whole autobiography, but some of the scariest physical situations I ever found myself in as a young woman involved trying to obtain illegal weed, and getting in trouble for smoking it *one time* in my dorm room -- by which I mean I only got caught once, despite all of my neurotic precautions -- led to what felt like world-ending levels of conflict with my parents and almost derailed my college career even though I was an academic high achiever at a fucking arts school.
Yes, it is easier for young people now to get high quality pot, so THC induced panic attacks are probably more common, and those suck. But it's also a lot easier to know what you're buying and, through trial and error, to figure out what gives your body pleasure, which in my opinion... matters? Getting high is not a placebo effect of "fearing legal consequences." For those of us who like it, getting high is fun, and interesting, and sensual, and although I know this is not the case for everyone, I've noticed that the intense paranoia I used to feel is *entirely* alleviated by knowing that I'm not entering a realm of criminality where others can scrutinize and report my behavior/appearance/scent to the authorities.
You are right that experimenting with weed no longer has to be a huge identity-defining risk. If you find that you like it and it enhances your creativity, makes you enjoy parties, helps you chill out, or eases your chronic pain, you don't feel like you have to choose between that preference and living an employed, productive life without secrecy. It's not "illicit." But I disagree that this is a bad thing. The bad thing is that I am no longer young. And yet: the other day, for the first time, I bought a pre-roll and walked it down the street in New York City smoking it before going into an art gallery to see a show I was excited about. I actually thought, if only 19-year-old me could see me now. I didn't think she would say I was cool because she never cared about being cool. She would just feel relieved.
“These kids today” will never know the thrill of wondering whether their weed was laced with paraquat.
And smoking it anyway.
Exactly. And penalties for use or holding even tiny amounts ruined many lives. Better to know than to hope.