August 17, 2004

Breaking it down

After resorting to Marinol for several days, I finally broke down and shelled out $200 for half an ounce of high quality marijuana. I was tired of the Marinol headaches. They're not terribly bad, just mild annoyances that last for much of the following day, and feel akin to a light hangover.

Getting marijuana after not using it for several days gave me the opportunity to observe it from a clearer perspective. What does it do, and how it does it are a mystery to many.

The smell is the first thing one notices. How does one describe a smell? Good marijuana can smell similar to a skunk, yet it generates a feel-good sense that one receives from smelling a luscious chocolate cake, fresh-baked bread or a juicy steak hot off the grill. The smell dissipates with time, so a strong smell lets you know that what you're smelling is fresh.

The feel of the cannabis is also telling. Fresh cannabis is soft, and cannot be easily broken apart. Some are also sticky to the touch, but only the freshest are still sticky, and extreme stickiness can often hinder the use of cannabis by making the rolling of joints difficult. Since I don't usually use a joint, this isn't a concern of mine. I use a pipe as I feel that joints waste more cannabis than pipes.

Everyone has different preferences for preparation. For me, I go the quick and simple way. I drop a bit into a coffee grinder, one or two quick bursts of the grinder, and the cannabis is chopped sufficiently to put into my pipe, but not small enough to fall into the hole and be sucked into my lungs. Since I use a glass pipe, no screen is used. For those who use other pipes with screens, grinding the cannabis down to a finer grain may be preferred.

I use the incremental method of smoking cannabis. With a lighter, I briefly touch one far side of the pipe with the flame, and inhale a small amount. I hold this briefly in my lungs (contrary to opinion, long holds in the lungs are not necessary). As I smoke the bowl, with each touch of the flame I move it periodically across the bowl. This helps conserve some of the pot.

After two hits, I start feeling a relaxation in body. Of course, this may be psychological, but nevertheless, it occurs. As I smoke, I feel more and more of my body relax, and similar to a good glass of wine after work, the cares of the day tend to slip away. Eventually, as this continues, the relaxation spreads to my stomach, and I begin to feel my stomach relax and unwind. If I'm in the midst of severe nausea, this is the point at which my vomiting will cease. After about one bowl of cannabis, the nausea soon concludes, and I feel -- normal.

By the time I finish my first bowl of cannabis, I'm feeling relaxed, joyous and calm. The tension of the day is gone, the nausea is at bay, and I'm ready to begin thinking about food. I'm not hungry yet, but by now I'm confident that I will be able to eat soon. It's at this point that I'll either begin fixing dinner, or venture out to acquire it. This is the nexus between being pleasantly "buzzed" and darnright high.

After I return from the hunt, or have started dinner cooking, I'll begin my second bowl. By the time I'm about half done with this, I'm hungry and will gobble down my dinner with gusto. The remaining half bowl is retained for after supper, and it somehow helps me further relax and digest my food without stomach pains. It's at this point that I can take the 20 or so pills for dessert. Yummmm.

Posted by Kroeme on August 17, 2004 10:38 AM

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Posted by: LizBTropez at March 30, 2006 06:38 AM

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