becoming ed the head

[ed the head]

I thought it might be interesting to hear your cannabis turn on stories. I will start with mine.

It was through my friend Mike from church in 1974. I was 13, Mike almost 2 years older. We first clicked by together observing/satirizing church dogma and devotees. Mike lived with his Dad and Step mother during the week, but with his mom on weekends. She kept a stash and one Saturday Mike and I had her place to ourselves. She had a surprisingly good vinyl album collection for an 'old' lady (cassettes were the new tech rage at the time). After some Fleetwood Mac and James Gang Mike asked if I wanted to 'go smoke a bone'. YES! He went into his mom's bedroom and came out with (what I can now judge as a 1-2 gram) mostly brown bud he said was 'Colombian' . It smelled very earthy and a little herbal. He opened one of the double album covers, placed it on his lap and started breaking apart the bud. As he did so, the heavier and round seeds within it rolled to the bottom of the open album cover leaving the cleaned bud in a loose pile above. He rolled a 'bone' using EZ Wider paper. It was tapered at both ends and bulging in the middle. We took it to the roof, he lit it and gave instructions. 'You have to inhale it, AND you have to hold it in' he said. 'How long?' I asked. 'As long as you can' he said. I took a drag. It was acrid but not intolerable and I held it in, handing the joint back to Mike. He paused and slowly took another drag and handed it back. I exhaled. 'DAMN!' said Mike, 'you held that in long!'. I panicked a little and blurted 'YOU SAID TO HOLD IT AS LONG AS I CAN!'. He assured me everything was alright, I was fine and we finished off that 'number'. In hindsight, this cannabis was likely a Landrace South American Sativa and was widely available. By 1977 we began to see different and improved cannabis. First was Thai Sticks, much greener in color, much more herbal and less earthy in aroma, and much much sweeter to smoke. It comparatively kicked like a Mule, AND, it was tied to a STICK! How cool is that?! I managed to score two 'joints' worth for the Led Zeppelin concert at Madison Square Garden. Shortly after this we began to see another rare and welcomed treat in the form of 'Skunk', but Colombian remained pervasive for another decade.

[ed the head]

'Are you high?' he asked me. 'I think so, I feel ... different.'

'How high?' he followed and as I blurted out 'About 4 feet' he looked over the 5 story ledge and broke into hysterical laughter. This made me laugh hysterically also and after a moment or two we realized we were making way too much commotion for the off-limits roof so we 'skee-daddled'. Downstairs we listened to Dark Side of the Moon and 'munched out' on dry breakfast cereal and iced tap water. With senses mildly and pleasantly augmented I more deeply enjoyed the blissful genius of Pink Floyd and smiled and/or giggled at particular passages of lyric and/or melody and/or rhythm. I reveled in just how absolutely perfect Captain Crunch was ...

Has water ALWAYS been THIS GOOD

My first step onto the path of the scared botanical.