Everyone Has Their Story About When They First Consumed Cannabis, Here’s Mine
It was Christmas vacation in Terre Haute, IN. I was 15 years old. I got a call on my mom’s landline—this was 1997—from my buddy Jack. Jack was a guy that I had previously only met once because we were skateboarding in the same parking lot. He didn’t know it at the time, but I had never smoked weed before. Ever since the Just Say No campaign came to my elementary school, I wanted to smoke. The reason I wanted to smoke bud was mainly because they tried so hard to keep us from consuming, and being the counterculture rebellious type that I was, that was all it took to get me very curious as to why they were trying to keep us from it.
I Was Ready to Smoke Long Before I Got My Hands on the Herb
I don’t remember exactly why, but even though I could never actually get my hands on any weed—probably largely because I went to Catholic school through 8th grade—I did have a bunch of paraphernalia: a bowl, rolling papers, etc. I probably had these items in anticipation of when I could eventually find weed. Anyway, Jack knew I had papers, and he had some mexi-brick schwag. So I went over to his house, and Jack, like three of his friends and I, rolled up a joint and walked down the street to Temple Israel, a Jewish temple a stone’s throw away from Jack’s house, and we proceeded to spark up a joint next to an old pine tree on the property.
Do You Get High the First Time You Smoke?
I heard in the past that you won’t get high when you consume for the first time—well, not me. Whenever the joint came to me, I would hold the smoke in until the joint would get back to me. Now most consumers at this point realize that “holding it in” doesn’t necessarily do anything for you. My understanding is it’s all about depth in the lungs, not really the time you are holding it in for. In any event, I did get high—not stoned, but I got a nice little buzz on. Honestly, getting a little baked was probably preferable as opposed to just getting ripped and not knowing what to do with myself. We all didn’t hang out for too long, being a little paranoid, admittedly, about who these guys were since I didn’t know them very well and wanting to get back home before any of my siblings knew I was gone was my priority.
Upon getting back home and being a little paranoid, I was surprised to find out no one noticed my absence what-so-ever. As any stoner knows, you’ll get a rush of euphoria when the things that you were paranoid about never come to fruition. This is a good time to quote Mark Twain when he said, “I’m an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
I ended up going back up to my bedroom, and I listened to 311’s Transistor, about as good of an album as you can listen to as a 15-year-old stoned for the first time, and also continued reading my latest issue of TransWorld Skateboarding magazine. However, for the first time ever, I was listening to music through seemingly different ears and reading through seemingly different eyes.
Cannabis Is Very Personal to Me and to Many Others
For me, cannabis was love at first smoke. It was like a warm blanket on a cold night or a hug from an old friend, even though I had never smoked before. 311 was a much better band high, my skateboarding magazine was richer, and it felt like there was more depth to the writing. Cannabis helps you to slow down and appreciate things more; it allows you to take your time and be in the moment. I knew after smoking just once it was going to be a major part of my life. Also keep in mind, at the time (1997), I still thought of it as a vice and didn’t know that almost 100% of the negative things I thought about cannabis were pretty much all propaganda.
I didn’t look at consuming cannabis as medicine until much later in life. Little did I know at 15 years old that the feeling of being more present and appreciating the moment more was a medicinal effect in and of itself.
The Nostalgia Is Strong with This One
It’s also worth mentioning there is nothing quite like smoking when you are only 15 years old. Not only are you young and spry, but at 15 years old you really don’t have much of a care in the world. Smoking as an adult in your 40s, you can’t help but think about all the responsibilities you have when you get really stoned, and you are saddled with the baggage of just being older and having had a lot of negative experiences in this world. But I also think cannabis can help you to become introspective and look at some negative experiences and help you to determine what the silver linings of those experiences are.
Cannabis is always medicine regardless of how you consume or how old you are when you do consume, assuming that you grew the cannabis yourself, cleanly and responsibly. One love.
