How Many Times Did SWIY Smoke Marijuana Before SWIY Felt High?

[Expat98]

There's already an old thread on this topic, but it's from back in 2003, and I wanted to open a new one so we could do a poll with current members.

Many people don't feel high the first time (or first few times) they smoke marijuana. For example, here is what Carl Sagan had to say:

Originally Posted by Carl Sagan

My initial experiences were entirely disappointing; there was no effect at all, and I began to entertain a variety of hypotheses about cannabis being a placebo which worked by expectation and hyperventilation rather than by chemistry. After about five or six unsuccessful attempts, however, it happened. I was lying on my back in a friend's living room idly examining the pattern of shadows on the ceiling cast by a potted plant (not cannabis!). I suddenly realized that I was examining an intricately detailed miniature Volkswagen, distinctly outlined by the shadows. I was very skeptical at this perception, and tried to find inconsistencies between Volkswagens and what I viewed on the ceiling. But it was all there, down to hubcaps, license plate, chrome, and even the small handle used for opening the trunk. When I closed my eyes, I was stunned to find that there was a movie going on the inside of my eyelids. Flash . . . a simple country scene with red farmhouse, a blue sky, white clouds, yellow path meandering over green hills to the horizon. . . Flash . . . same scene, orange house, brown sky, red clouds, yellow path, violet fields . . . Flash . . . Flash . . . Flash. The flashes came about once a heartbeat. Each flash brought the same simple scene into view, but each time with a different set of colors . . . exquisitely deep hues, and astonishingly harmonious in their juxtaposition. Since then I have smoked occasionally and enjoyed it thoroughly. It amplifies torpid sensibilities and produces what to me are even more interesting effects, as I will explain shortly.

(BTW, Carl Sagan's entire essay about his appreciation for cannabis is posted here.)

So how many times did SWIY smoke marijuana before SWIY felt high? Please also describe the first time SWIY felt high.

I called up SWIM and asked him about it, and here is what he had to say:

"It was my third time. I hooked up with my best friend B and another guy K after a football game. K had some pot, and we went back to B's apartment and smoked it from his homemade bong made from a gallon wine jug.

At first it was just like the first two times where I didn't feel anything. But then I was just sitting on a sofa and leaning back, and all of a sudden I said to them, "I feel like I'm doing back flips in the air!" They both looked at me like they were surprised, and then K said, "He's stoned, he's stoned!" They were so happy for me.

We were listening to this Irish folk music, and it was just crazy. I started looking at B and pointing at him and laughing, and he was pointing back at me and laughing. Seeing him laugh made me laugh even harder, and vice versa, so we went into this feedback loop where we were both looking at each other and laughing harder and harder. Probably never laughed so hard in my life!

I was supposed to go with them to a party, but I told them I just wanted to stay there. So they left, and I went to lie down on B's bed and listen to music. And thus my journey into the world of mind-expanding drugs began..."

[RaverHippie]

Swim tells me that on his first time smoking it was very memorable. He had gone to college for orientation over the summer and it was the first time he was in an open accepting environment filled with like minds. He made a couple of great friends who managed to bring some cannabis club weed with them from san francisco. They cut from some welcome activities and walked into the middle of a park in NYC and shared a blunt and eventually had a nice circle of stoners passing a few joints and had a very memorable first smoking experience. It was great because just after smoking for his first time he was required to go to his academic advisor and pick out his classes for first semester. Everything went swimmingly. He assures me that he felt it then as much as he does now (he's a lightweight). Upon every hit he literally feels it in his forehead, a physical blow to his brain that leaves him dazed, stoned and happy.

[Expat98]

Originally Posted by RaverHippie

He made a couple of great friends who managed to bring some cannabis club weed with them from san francisco.

SF cannabis club herb for SWIY's first time...Nice. SWIM probably would have gotten high the first time too if he'd had that to smoke!

[Geeza]

Swim first tried weed when he was on ecstasy. Didn't feel any difference at all.

Second time was with some really moist leafy shit that didn't really get him high like he does now, he just felt a little happier but thought it must be a placebo or excitement about the party he was going to later. Food tasted great. Nicked all his mates chips:
Mate: have a chip
Swim: nah, not hungry man, had a big breakfast and I'm not stoned
Mate: try one!
Swim: ok... mmmm....................... dude............. can I have another?

He smoked that shit all day waiting for his mate to arrive with the 70+ pills for the party while feeling only slightly happy and hungry.
eventually he ended up with the giggles, stumbled about and generally messed about more than usual.

So I clicked 2nd, as he wasn't completely stoned but actually FELT something unlike his 1st - but he was probably too gurned up to notice.

Probably just shit weed preventing a second timer gettin high properly.

[Shampoo]

I asked my friend, a daily herb-smoker, and here is what he had to say:

"Before having ever seen marijuana, I answered the door to my friend one day who rushed in with a grin on his face after calling me, telling me we were going to try pot for the first time. He pushed me up the stairs to my room and took out a flashlight he had with a hidden compartment. We were about 13 at the time and deeply engrossed in the 'spy' culture of secrecy and hiding. He took out a small bag, with what I would now guess was probably about 1/10th of a gram, and we snuck into the attic of my house. We found a piece of regular old computer paper, tore off a section, rolled it into a cone, and dropped in the piece of weed. One after the other, we held the lighter up to the cone and sucked deeply in, coughing with a ten-fold greater force. We each took a few hits, our heads spinning with oxygen depravation, and laid down. I remember, after reviving myself from a half-nauseous, dizzy stupor, thinking to myself, 'Why would anyone do this?'

It would be another 4 years before I would try cannabis again. I tried a handful of mushrooms and some LSD, but never tried marijuana again until my senior year of high school when I would eat a brownie given to me by a friend and lay in a park on my back for 6 hours, jabbering secretly to myself about the strangest of things. I smoked the next day...a scrawny little joint, twisted on the ends and leaking herb...and inhaled deeply. There was no great coughing fit, no nausea...it felt like a more intense version of my experience with that brownie. Well, you know the story from there..."

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good report, thanks for sharing :)

[Matt The Funk]

It took SWIM a few times smoking to get high, not sure why. First time he did get high he smoked out of a soda can. He doesn't remember when or where, just that he must have been 12, and that he must have really enjoyed it.

[Coconut]

SWIM smoked weed mixed with tobacco first time. Did nothing noticeable. Then hash for a few weeks. Very little effect. SWIM remembers specifically the first time he was truly stoned. His friend obtained some reasonable quality weed and rolled SWIM one pure. He smoked the whole thing. They then went into the friend's house and ate. SWIM's head was... well... SWIMming. He remembers seeing a plethora of funny shapes and colours in his head with his eyes closed and the feeling that the whole universe was spinning on one axis.

Took way more than five times to get there initially, but now it takes very little.

[raven3davis]

AHHHH swims second time smoking marijuana. What a fond memory. He took a hit and felt a weird sensation crawl up his arm. Then he started laughing hysterically. The rest is history.

[drivin_that_train]

The first time SWIM felt high was the first time SWIM smoked by herself, which was the third time.

[Metomni]

That's a great Sagan excerpt, I'll have to toss some more rep your way the next time I'm able to.

SWIM's first time he was sitting in a dusky basement on a couch facing a very untrusty looking pillar along with a horribly dirty kitchen. Not the greatest scenery, but the feelings and emotions made the scenery feel a little unimportant.

He doesn't even remember the smoking utility used, the most likely culprit would have to be a medium sized glass bowl with a deceitfully large bowl. It was a strage hue of brown and swirled more and more with every smoke session.

All SWIM remembers is that he spilled the contents of his cup on him and still didn't feel the motivation, or even desire to move. After a while, he went to clean up, but he doesn't remember much more of the experience. Though, that little bit that he does remember makes him chuckle from time to time upon reflection.

Just a sidenote: SWIM was 19 years of age and unexperienced with every other drug (including tobacco and alcohol) at the time of this experience.

[cra$h]

1st time- gravity bong, had a cap to the face, just got beat
2nd time- walked around the neighborhood with a blunt, nothing at all.
3rd time- home made bong, got giggly for like, 5 minutes.
4th time- medium size bowl, great weed. danced around, couldnt tell what color the sky was, laughed a lot, and those trucks that carry cars looked like a city (it was night time)

accidently voted for 3 times, but swim forgot about that blunt

[Heretic.Ape.]

labmonkey was high as a kite the first time. Laughed his ass off and had a super time, leading to his becoming an outright stoner for the next five years before chilling out a bit and downgrading to "occasional toker" status.

[Expat98]

So far we have an approximate 50/50 split, with half of the respondents feeling high the first time they smoked, and the other half not. I am guessing that this has a lot to do with the potency of the herb that was smoked. If someone is lucky enough to have kind bud or medical marijuana for their first time, then I would imagine that they are much more likely to feel high than someone who smokes common schwag for their first time.

Interesting hearing about the experiences too.

People often talk about how ecstasy loses its magic after the first few uses. SWIM says that marijuana hasn't lost its magic for him, but he does wish that he could re-live the first few experiences he had with it, where he laughed his ass off!

[RaverHippie]

SWIM still considers himself inexperienced with weed. He still has trouble with bongs sometimes and excessive coughing etc.

[enquirewithin]

SWIM had a girlfriend who smoked weed/ hash a dozen times or more and felt nothing at all. Finally, she felt the effects from some Nepali hash and afterwards was able to get stoned, but was never a great fan of cannabis.

[Promefazyne]

It took SWIM a few times before he felt it. At least 3 or 4 sessions...a few were in the same day though. After SWIM hit a bong he started to feel it. SWIM thinks that he wasn't inhaling properly on the joints earlier...