I wrecked a car. The one time I tried pot. I wrecked my beater car by hitting a curb while driving really fast. I had no idea that stuff affected people so badly. I was totally out of it. I was lucky I came out of the car within walking distance from home, so I could go sober up. I was lucky I didn't take anyone out with me.
I have never operated a motor vehicle under the influence of anything stronger than a cold tablet. I cannot imagine wanting to do so, at any time, for any reason. I have never encouraged anyone to do so, and have regularly discouraged people I thought might listen. It's a really dumb thing to do. Your story is different; I've never talked with anyone who didn't realize that operating any kind of heavy machinery (and a car is heavy machinery) is a Bad Idea when under the influence of anything at all. Our cultural milieus growing up must have been very different. This lesson was drummed into me at least once a week for many years; I got it at school, on the TV, and in those little talks parents like to have every so often, and I never got a license until I was in my 20s.
These dweebs I knew heard that I had never tried pot. So they encouraged me to try it. Then they thought it would be REALLY FUNNY to send me to the store in my own car.
I had never heard that stuff would make me just as out of it as alcohol, or worse. I've never driven drunk, so I don't really know. I thought it was just some simple giggly high that would happen. I never thought I shouldn't be driving.
I shouldn't have drove that car that night. I got to learn the hard way because nobody was honest with me about what it does to the head. Instead I was around a bunch of @sshats that thought the whole thing was hilarious.
I haven't touched it since, and it didn't help my opinion of potheads.
You are prejudging. This is almost always a mistake. I agree they were @sshats, and I would have agreed with that assessment when I was fifteen, without hesitation. Unfortunately, @sshats are everywhere; they are not restricted to the ranks of stoners. In fact, in my experience, they are less common among stoners than elsewhere. Most @sshats like to get drunk and get in fights, or do coke or speed, and get in fights, until all their teeth are gone and their noses have holes in them.
I can understand your opinion, and see now the reason for your emotional reaction. I sympathize, and empathize. But I think you have taken the reaction too far, into frank prejudice.
As has been said elsewhere, your reaction the first time is unusual, anecdotally speaking; most people I know who smoke pot tell me that they also didn't get high the first time. I, however, like you, did. It was pretty mild, but interesting. I'll be very frank; I've done about everything there was to do in my sphere (growing up in Silicon Valley in the 1970s), but I drew the line at animal tranquilizers. Phencyclidine never interested me. I have done DMT, LSD, cocaine, methaqualone, barbiturates, methedrine, and once smoked black liquid opium; I also once did X (ectasy) but didn't get much out of it.
I have never used an injected drug that I was not given by a doctor in a medical setting. I have never tried phencyclidine or any other animal tranquilizer, heroin or any other opiate (except the opium the one time, and once under medical supervision, after a broken arm, I was given codeine- and when I ran out and WANTED MORE I understood the risk that opiates pose and that is why I avoided them; the doctor asked if I wanted more and I said, "hell, no, I'd rather hurt than get addicted to that crud"). The only one I liked better than pot was LSD. The problem with LSD is that if you take it often enough, you're not well connected to reality any more, and I didn't want that either. The riskiest drug I have ever seen is cocaine; its primary effect, in my experience, is to make you want more. I suspect that opiates are worse in this regard, based on my experience with codeine.
I strongly suspect that it is far easier to use only a little bit of pot occasionally than either alcohol or tobacco; in the case of tobacco, I am nearly certain of this. In this setting, that makes it safer than either, though as with all drugs, not entirely safe. I have seen many violent drunks; I have rarely seen a violent stoner. Stoned people are generally cautious people, in my experience. Of all the drugs I have done, or seen done, these three in my experience are the safest; again, with all the provisos regarding the safety of any recreational drug. People become alcoholics; people become permanent stoners; people become addicted to nicotine. But the first and last are far more common than the second, in my experience. I have only once seen anyone fired for getting stoned on the job; but I have seen quite a few canned for drinking, or for doing stupid things when they were drunk.
So that's my opinion, and my anecdotes. Do with it what you will. I hope you come to a less prejudiced opinion as a result, but I don't blame you for your opinion.
Does Tyler have someone else, professional type (a good one, which can sometimes be hard to find) to help him through this? Sometimes group therapy can be very long-term and effective too.
