Hey Stashers, I’m going to try a new feature here at the Stash – the “Virtual Bowl” for the evening.
I’ve set up my schedule to write and record and post the Stash from 8am-6pm Pacific. After I post at 4:20pm, I listen to the Stash and unwind. I imagine a lot of you are doing the same. But since technology has yet to evolve to the point where we can put a nice bowl in Scotty’s transporter and beam it from Stasher to Stasher, I thought maybe we could all unwind together over a virtual bowl.
The idea is this: the new threaded comments feature allows us to reply directly to each other’s comments. It’s not in semi-real time like the Fresh Stash; instead, this would be more like the “open thread” posts I see on so many political-talk blogs, where we have a general topic, but it’s really just a chance to open up discussions.
In each evening’s Virtual Bowl, I will pack a budly nugget in the form of an open sentence. Tonight’s virgin green bowl is:
The first time I smoked pot…
…and you just go ahead and fill in the rest. You can start your own response all the way at the bottom of all the comments in the big white “Leave a Reply” box. Or you can reply directly to an existing response by clicking the blue “Reply” link below the comment.
I’m also doing this for selfish reasons. I’m beginning to write a book about the cannabis community and I want to mine these discussion threads for story and interview ideas. Don’t worry, I’ll never “out” a stoner with any identifying details (unless said stoner hypocritically acts in ways that threaten other stoners – a closeted legislator, cop, or judge who’s harassing us will be “outed”.)
I’ll even start. The first time I smoked pot…
…was on July 4, 1990. I was playing bass in a local hair-rock cover band called “Crossfire” in a resort hotel in McCall, Idaho, two hours north of Boise. We finished a rockin’ gig and those of us who didn’t snag any local girls (all of us but the lead singer, sadly) returned to our hotel room to chill.
It was then that one of the guitar players pulled out a joint, lit it, and passed it to me. Oh my god, I thought, DRUGS! I think I may have just passed it to the other guitarist, who passed it to the drummer, on to the roadie, back to the first guitar player, and in that time I had decided I was going to try it.
Three hours later after massive giggle fits, some inspired jamming, and a convenience store run, we crashed. I awoke the next morning feeling rested and well. No hangover. No bad breath. No mysterious injuries or marker on my face. That was DRUGS! Really? That’s what they’ve been telling me will turn my brain into a fried egg? For six years I’d been shotgunning beers and pounding double shots to try to relax and have fun. This was much better.
Unfortunately, the notion that I had been seriously lied to concerning DRUGS! did have an unfortunate unintended negative consequence, but I’ll save that for another Virtual Bowl.
Nope, 14 for me. Oddly enough, I answered “21″ to what age I think it should be legal. Sorta of hypocritical of me; I think if you’re old enough to vote and die for this country, the least we can do is booze you up. OTOH, since the current age for booze is 21 (unless you’re on base I hear), I thought the powers that be would feel better about having it the same.
You probably learnd something drinking…
I don’t drink any more but I Had a lot of fun doing it…I never really pushed it(much)
The first time I ever smoked pot was in 1969. I was married to a jerk and I ended up crying every time after smoking a joint.
The second time I ever smoked pot was in 1971, after the divorce. I was 21. I could vote, drink, and learned to smoke pot. Some friends and I went to my parents cabin in Cloudcroft, NM. We kept rolling and smoking for the entire weekend. One of the best times I ever had, after that I started looking for my own supply. I have been smoking ever since. Even a heart attack didn’t stop me. I have been smoking pot daily for over 37 years.
I guess I’m one of the odd ones who first tokes after age 21. I wish I had toked at age 18 and stopped drinking… maybe I’d have a college degree.
I hope you make it to Seattle Hempfest ’09, and if you do, stop by the Oregon NORML booth and say high.
Seems like most of us smoked for the first time at around 13-16yo
But, many stoped after that early puff
I was too young to to understand “high”
I was thirteen, and a couple of my friends and I had decided to buy some bud from a senior in high school.
after we got it, my friend was so worried about his parents catching us that he insisted that we waited until dark so that we could sneak out of the house, leave the gated community that he lived in, and walk over to a field that must have been over a mile away.
when we finally got there i whipped out the bowl that i had borrowed from my older sister, sloppily packed it up and we started smoking. I remember that halfway through the dime bag that we had bought we realized how to use the shotgun and actually started getting some legit hits.
once we were done none of us thought that we felt anything, so we started walking up the road back to my friends house.
once we got back into the neighborhood my friend asked us in a terrified voice if we saw someone running up the street after us. we looked back and i remember clearly that the only thing i saw was a swan landing in the road, which were often there because of the nearby lake. Before i could voice this sentiment however, my other stoned companion yelled out, “Oh shit!” and they both took off down the street.
While i had not seen a man, I assumed that i was being the stereotypical “dumb stoner” for seeing a swan instead of a person, and i started running as well to catch up to my more athletic friends who were already halfway down the street.
after turning a corner we all ran into a random yard and hid under a large tree to see if we could lose our mysterious assailant. we waited and waited, but no one ever showed up.
after waiting as long as i was willing too i asked my friends exactly what they had seen. The one that had originally seen the alleged man told me that he had seen a man dressed in all white running towards us. my other friend said that while he had not seen the man himself, he did see something white moving towards us. after sharing my swan theory with the two, as well as stating that and I didn’t think that i had ever seen anyone dressed in all white outside of a wedding, they both agreed that it was likely that i was right and we continued the walk back to the house.
we stumbled back into my friends house late that night and fell asleep quickly. when we woke up sober the next morning i asked my friends how sure they were that they had seen someone and their answers were not at all convincing.
after that experience i started smoking when the opportunity came up, but rarely more then a couple times a month, and i never bought more then a dime or nickel bag for myself. i also pretty much exclusively smoked shwag just because i didn’t know any better.
once i got to high school however, much better bud was much easier to get, and my friends and i started to become regular smokers. two of us now smoke daily, or as close to daily as we can get. the other one was forced to switched schools and fell out of contact with us.
I am in my first year of college now, and while i am only still friends with one of the two guys that i smoked with for the first time the two of us still smoke together often and laugh about that first time we got together to spark a bowl.
I was born in ’79:)
Hey my mom smoked through the 9 months, does that count?
Alright but this has to be a double entry for me. You’ll see …
The first time I smoked pot it was 1978; I was 14 and still living at home. It was a bowl with three friends. I’m not sure whether it just sucked or I didn’t smoke enough but I didn’t get high so I didn’t try it again …
… until the second time I tried pot when I was 16. I was now a ward of the court of my state of residence (living in group homes). I was in a short term home but was spending a weekend at a long term house to see if I fit in with the residents and if I liked the place before moving in. It was Friday night and all the guys were in the senior resident’s bedroom drinking beers they had hidden in a beanbag. The senior guy sparked up a bowl and we passed it around. The stuff in that bowl damn sure worked because I was quickly high as a kite and all giggly and smiley. It was around 8PM and the daytime adult counselor had left and the substitute counselor had arrived. I was standing near the bedroom door with my back to it.
I suddenly felt a hand clap down on my shoulder. I had a beer in one hand and the smoking bowl in the other. A couple of the guys in the bedroom started laughing. I turned around to see a Catholic priest (black jacket, white collar and everything) standing there with a smile on his face. My own face was white as a sheet and my jaw was dribbling against my knees.
The priest smiled at me and said, “I’m Father xxx, the weekend sub. Welcome to xxx House, it looks like you’ll fit in just fine here.”
That was my start to smoking weed. It’s gotten stranger and better ever since.
this was 1979…
I never smoked any hash until last year…
I love hash, It is much more satisfying.
Still not a lot around…
HASH !!!!! someone has been smokeing HAAASSEEESSHH !!!
is what I remember his moms saying :)
ahh….what a trip down memory lane, it was over Christmas break, 8th grade.Having downed quarts if beers many a time before, I’d yet to try pot. I’d bought into the propaganda, then after deciding to finally smoke some it was at an Iranian kids house whose dad, a doctor, came to the States when the Shaw went exile to France and Ayotolla the assaholla took over, the hostage crisis. Man my friend Armin took a lot of shit. Back to the story we smoke a couple salad bowls while Armin’s parents were gone. Buzzkill, his parents came home shortly after and his mom could smell it in the air. All of us in attendance had to confess to our parents about it, never got in too much trouble due to my older brothers doing the same thing.
BTW I only smoked weed until 2004 then I discovered real MARIJUANA…I moved from NC to WA
I was 13, I was with my friend from birth and a dude from his street… Our parents all smoked so it was easy to get, I know this sounds bad.
We grew up with weed, by 13 I knew it wouldn’t kill me.
We made a pipe out of brass pipe fittings…Gross
Well we loaded the bowl and hit it. I burnned the hell out of my throat!!! I don’t even remember being high.
I do remember hiding the fact that my throat hurt for a week.
I had plenty of opertunity but, I didn’t smoke again for 2 years…12th grade started smokin steady, 1996-99/5yrs in Navy-smoked about twice a year…/2004-death smokin agian…
The first time I smoked pot…
I got so high I thought I was a bird. Then this girl’s brother came home and tried fighting my ride.
I freaked out.
I was 17 and worked at a store in the mall. A guy I worked with and I took a break and went to his car in the parking lot. He packed a small bowl and we hit it and listened to some Pink Floyd. When we went back inside I was baked and happy, but pretty paranoid being around all those people while I was high. We go back to work and we’re behind the counter when this old guy walks buy and looks over and flips his dentures around in his mouth. I nearly died laughing and will never forget the experience.
The first time I smoked pot I was 24. I had just finished off a massive ‘chipotle’ burrito. I was two weeks away from quitting my construction job to move on to better things. My co-worker (who was in his 40′s,) knew that I was interested in trying cannabis, offered me a bowl. No pressure.
I had been interested especially in the medicinal uses of cannabis ever since I learned that my father, who died of cancer, could have died in peace instead of in suffering. I was 9 years old and was afraid of even looking at the emaciated body of my father. He couldn’t eat because of the chemotherapy. He lost almost 100 of his 215 pounds. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t speak. He didn’t look like my father. I was afraid.
If he could have used cannabis, I wonder how differently his last days would have been. If he could have stomached his food. If he could have lived his final days without the pain and discomfort from his slow asphyxiation. Would I have been less afraid of opening the door to my parent’s room while he slowly wasted away for the last month of his life? If only he could have used marijuana to keep his strength. How many more months would he have lived? If he could have maintained his appetite and weight, to keep a normal appearance. Would I have been brave enough to at least say “goodbye?”
Who knows. It would have been nice to try…
I was also interested in seeing what cannabis would do for the migraines, stomach pains and nausea from Leaky gut syndrome that I had experienced for almost ten years. And the severed depression and anxiety that I was diagnosed with that sent me to a state hospital for two weeks on suicide watch just a year before.
The first time I smoked pot my headache, my aches, my pains, my nausea all melted away. My anxiety vanished and for the first time in ten years I felt alive, happy, optimistic, unworried and at peace.
The second and last time I smoked pot was a two months later at Seattle Hempfest 2008.
I’ve tried to get a medical recommendation through the Washington medical marijuana program but was told that since I choose to see a Naturopathic Doctor instead of an MD I don’t qualify.
I hope to move to California by the end of ’09.
Life is too short to waste time not using and enjoying the benefits of this plant.
The first time I smoked pot…
I was thirteen
I also got drunk for the first time that day.
We went to my ‘friends’ house. They had a barn and up into the loft we went. I had got a bottle of bourbon from ”dad’s ” liqueur cabinet.
Boy did I over do it that day. My very first time I get liqueur and I get so drunk. I was poisoned. I was sick every where.
When some one says puking up from the bottom of their shoes I believe it !
After a cup of coffee my ‘friends’ had me smoke some pot to straighten up so I could go home before their parents got home.
Now I’m drunk and stoned and only thirteen !
When I got home I was grounded for a month.
Ever since then cannabis is me and now 28yrs later it still is.
Way safer than poisonous liqueur.
One of many of my dads favorite expressions I will always remember from that day is when dad talked about how now I know how dangerous liqueur is and I could have died. There are other ways to have fun then use alcohol. When I complained about being grounded he said…
BLAH BLAH BLA BLABLABLA
” NOW PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT.”
I took his words to heart
thanx dad!
Anybody else not smoke their first bowl until after age 21?