In case I have never made it clear up to this point, I have never done drugs. I've never smoked marijuana. However, I have been exposed to it, enough that I experienced a touch of what it is like to get high. While I would find myself among others who were smoking weed at various times in my life, this was the only time I ever actually felt something taking effect.
The second weekend of college was Labor Day weekend. While a lot of students from around the area went home, I stayed on campus. I had enjoyed the freedom of being able to be where I wanted when I wanted without having to answer to my parents. Friday night, I found myself hanging out with some people I had met in the few days before classes started. I was in their dorm room in Eddy Hall. There were a few other people in there, and they seemed to not be pleased that I was there, but no one told me to leave.
Then this one guy came in. He had brought the pot. He went over to the desk and pulled out a Ziploc bag. Inside was this solid green clump of material. This would be the first time I had laid my eyes on marijuana. I was surprised to see that it looked like what you would find when you scraped off the underside of a lawnmower.
The guy started pulling the clump apart and putting it into rolling papers. After a while, more people arrived and they started smoking the joints. They passed the joint to me and I just passed it next to the next person. This went on for the next two hours in that 10' x 10' room.
Nobody started acting strange or silly. It was like everyone in the room had been smoking pot for some time, so this was not a rare occurrance for them. I didn't feel anything while I was in the room. However, I decided I was tired and went back to my dorm. As soon as I got to my floor, I actually started feeling a little loopy. While I walked toward my room, I started swaying from side to side down the hallway. I was having a little fun doing this. I started going "woo, woo" with every sway, but not very loudly. I wondered if anyone else would see me acting this way. No one came out of their rooms to see what was going on. I think they were all out smoking pot.
But the one thing I was aware of during my experience was that, if I needed to, I could have stopped swaying and going "woo woo." Since the smokers in the room weren't acting all crazy, it led me to the conclusion that a lot of the people who "act" stoned after they've been smoking don't necessarily have to exhibit how out of it they are. It seemed like they were perfectly capable of pulling themselves together for the sake of appearances when they're outside the "weed realm." I became very intolerant of stoned individuals, especially when they showed up for work like that. However, I also have to acknowledge that I only got a contact high, so I don't really know what it's like to be truly stoned. I also don't know what I myself may or not be able to control about my outward appearance.
This occurred to me when I went to the hospital for a kidney biopsy in 2005. Prior to the procedure, I was given a valium. The nurse started asking me questions. A few moments later, I started feeling really drowsy. I told the nurse I could feel the valium kicking in. When they were wheeling me down the hallway, I started acting a little loopy. I put the sheet over my head and asked if it was okay if I went to the O.R. like that. They said no. I kind of didn't see the point of behaving properly, so that's probably how a lot of people feel when they're on drugs. But again, if it had been important for me to offer a facade of proper decorum, I would have been able to comply.
So, one of the things I learned from my contact high experience in college was to never be in that small a room with a bunch of other people smoking pot. After than, when I encountered people smoking weed, it was usually at someone's roomier house or apartment. I wasn't in a concentrated area, so I didn't inhale as much. I never got high again, and I can't say I ever wanted to.
That was enough for me.
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