The Straight Toke - THE Marijuana Blog

Hi, Julius!

After a year of college, I'm finally ready to accept that my conservative ****** hometown may have been wrong about whether or not smoking pot would turn me into a crack whore. I've smoked twice, both times with what my friends told me was pretty good stuff, and both times I felt light-headed, had a little trouble speaking and a lot of trouble repressing my accent, and even had some motor function weirdness -- typing, turning pages, and really any delicate stuff was out of the question, and I couldn't judge the force of my movements that well. My mental impairment felt slight, but my physical impairment was pretty intense, almost as bad as being really drunk. It also took a while to kick in, about fifteen minutes after I started smoking, but when it did, it hit all at once. I also got really tired about an hour afterward, but then had trouble falling asleep and either hallucinated a little or dreamed vividly.

Both times, the people I was with also told me that I was really, really high, but as a brand-new smoker, I don't know what that means. What does a normal high feel like? Is it different for everyone? Is that kind of physical sensation something I can expect every time? I like the state of mind fine, but I could do without the loss of motor control. I'm clumsy at the best of times; I need all the balance I can muster. I also thought that maybe I'm smoking too much. The way I've been doing it is taking every other hit off my roommate's pipe. I thought it would equal out since he's got less body mass than I do but has been smoking longer. We have about the same alcohol tolerance. How much should I be smoking? If it matters, I'm 19, female, a little overweight, and I tend to have great natural tolerance -- equal to my dad's, who lives up to every expectation of a great big scary ****** dad and has been drinking for thirty years -- for alcohol, caffeine, sugar, most medications, et cetera.

Thanks!

First, let me say that it's always good to hear about someone overcoming the (rather strong) anti-cannabis message that has become increasingly common since the 1930s. Now, on to your questions:

All of what you describe in your first paragraph is, in a few words, perfectly normal. Depending on the dosage, marijuana may cause a marked change in visual and auditory perception, as well motor impairment. The onset of your high seems about right too -- lots of people report their early experiences as kicking in "all of a sudden". I suspect this isn't necessarily due to one's metabolism of the cannabinoids, but rather their perception of the effects -- but I have no empirical evidence to support this hypothesis. Either way, your description of the symptoms gives me no cause for concern.

Your note of dreams/hallucinations after falling asleep is also on par with what I'd expect. Various cannabinoids have been reported to cause visual hallucinations, but only in extremely high doses -- it is exceedingly unlikely that you used enough marijuana to cause active hallucinations. Instead, it is more likely that you succumbed to one of marijuana's more common effects: vivid dreams. I'll admit, they can be a little strange at first (as one is not often accustomed to experiencing and/or remembering vivid dreams), but they are (in my opinion) one of marijuana's more pleasant effects. Again, there is no reason to be concerned.

Both times, the people I was with also told me that I was really, really high, but as a brand-new smoker, I don't know what that means. What does a normal high feel like? Is it different for everyone?

From your description, it sounds like you were, in fact, really high. :) Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your point of view), there is no standard way to measure how high one is. The cannabinoids present in marijuana affect different people in different ways. While there are often similarities between different peoples' experiences, the effects are never identical. If pressed, I'd answer that a 'normal' high is usually more relaxed, with less physical impairment than you experienced -- but that would be a wildly inaccurate, grossly over-simplified answer. The effects of marijuana vary depending on a whole bunch of factors, some of which are: presence of other drugs (caffeine, alcohol, nicotine), body weight, when you last used cannabis, past experience with cannabis, state of mind, visual stimulation, etc. Any one of these can change the 'high' for a given person from one day to the next; once you consider that different people react to marijuana in different ways, predicting what a 'normal' high is like becomes an impossible task.

The type of marijuana also affects the type of high you'll experience. Some strains have what is described as a heavy "body stone" -- they tend to produce a "fuzzier" mental effect, and a sensation of muscle relaxation and lethargy. These are the sorts of buds you might want to smoke (or vaporize) if you're looking for the kind of sleepy, chilled out stone where you zone out on the couch. Other strains have more of a head high -- the sort that turns the iTunes visualizer into a night of entertainment. The type of bud you use makes a tremendous difference in the type of high.

Is that kind of physical sensation something I can expect every time? I like the state of mind fine, but I could do without the loss of motor control. I'm clumsy at the best of times; I need all the balance I can muster. I also thought that maybe I'm smoking too much. The way I've been doing it is taking every other hit off my roommate's pipe. I thought it would equal out since he's got less body mass than I do but has been smoking longer.

It's unlikely that you'll experience that sort of physical sensation every time. As you get more comfortable with marijuana, you'll learn how to operate in a more efficient, precise, and normal manner while under the influence. The more you smoke, the more familiar the high will become -- over time, the "feel" of getting high will change. There's no good way to describe how it changes, as the development varies depending on the person, but you can be sure that your first high will be different from your tenth, which will be different from your hundredth, etc.

Speaking of tolerance, it's likely that your friend has a far greater tolerance than you do -- so alternating every other hit with him likely gave you way more than you'd need to get high. Again, there's no danger to this (as it is physically impossible to smoke enough cannabis to be fatal), but you almost certainly didn't need to smoke as much as you did in order to "get high". (The large amount that you smoked might also be the cause of some of the physical impairment that you experienced.)

Also speaking of tolerance, it's worth noting that your tolerance to alcohol, caffeine, prescription drugs, etc. has absolutely no bearing on your tolerance to marijuana. THC binds to completely different receptors, and is metabolized using different pathways than most every drug out there. You can be the world's toughest drinker, but if you've never smoked weed before, a couple of well-packed bongs will still send you skyward. If you based your expectations of how much to smoke on your alcohol tolerance... well... I'm not surprised if you got really high. ;-)

Finally, we come to the last question: how much should you smoke? Unfortunately, I have no answer to this. Every person metabolizes the cannabinoids present in marijuana at a different rate, and some people are more sensitive to the active ingredients than others. The only advice I can offer is this: experiment. Try seeing how little you need to smoke to feel an effect. See what that feels like. If you like it, then you won't need to smoke any more during future smoke sessions. If it's not enough, try again in a couple days with a slightly higher dose. Repeat this process until you find the level that you're comfortable at. I honestly can't give any more advice than that: there is no "standard" dose of marijuana -- so you'll have to figure out how much you're comfortable with.

Your Brother in Peace,

Julius

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Experiences, Q/A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.