For those of you who underestimate the power of marijuana...

Here is a copy of a marijuana "trip report" i just sent to erowid. This occurred yesterday, and was one of the most horrifying moments of my life up to this point:

Yesterday, two of my friends and I were hanging out and decided to get high with the new bong I'd gotten the day before. I am a 21-year-old male. My two friends were another 21-year-old male (we'll call him M), my best friend from childhood, who has smoked a great deal of pot in his day, and my 21-year-old ex-girlfriend (we’ll call her F), who has probably smoked 12-15 times in her life over the last couple of years. F and I had smoked together the day before, and, as usual, I got a lot higher than she did. I had some pretty nice pot, and combined with the two foot bong, there was no excuse for her not being ridiculously high. So, I had a bright idea. I would fill the chamber with my massive distance runner lungs and just pass it to her so that she could take a much bigger hit. So, that’s what we did. She always coughs a lot, but this time she coughed even more than usual. M and I kept smoking while she walked around the room trying to collect herself. After coughing for maybe thirty seconds, she decided to go to the bathroom. I knew she was probably feeling a little sick due to all of the smoke, so after a minute I followed her in and checked on her.

She looked a little rough, but she was doing ok. I think her wind pipe had closed off for a minute due to the smoke, which had made it really tough for her to breathe. However, by this point she was able to talk (although not very well), and she was breathing fine. She was a little embarrassed to have had a major coughing fit in front of M, so after a few words of encouragement, I left her alone and told her to come out when she was ready.

So, I returned to the den and sat around chatting with M. After three or four minutes, I began to worry about F. She seemed to be doing ok when I left, so I was surprised she hadn’t joined us yet. I decided to go back and check again, and it’s the understatement of the year to say I’m glad I did. I don’t know what would’ve happened if I hadn’t.

I walked through the guest bedroom and towards the bathroom, and she was standing in the doorway, with her hand loosely grabbing the door. The best way to describe it in a sentence would be that she looked something like Danny Torrance in The Shining when he is seeing all of the bad stuff and freaking out. Her mouth was gaping, the musculature in her face was completely relaxed, her face was pale and blue and she was mildly shaking and moaning/mumbling. She had completely lost touch with reality, and looked to be in a very, very, very scary place.

I don’t know how I managed to stay somewhat calm. I cannot explain what it was like to see the person I probably love more than anyone else in the world experiencing true loss of control, true terror and confusion. At this point, I was certain that she was going to be rolling around on the floor crying and screaming for hours. Anyway, I quickly approached her and just repeated things like, “What’s wrong? Everything is fine, it’s all ok, just relax… there’s nothing wrong… what’s bothering you, it’s all going to be ok” etc. etc. As soon as I started talking to her and touching her, she began to lose control of her legs. Luckily she stayed on her feet long enough for me to grab her, and I laid her on her back. She was still completely gone, lost in her own world of horror. I kept at it with the most calm, helpful words I could think of, trying to reach her. Sure enough after about ten seconds of lying on her back, she looks up, and in her familiar voice said firmly but, surprisingly, not too emotionally, “WHERE AM I?” And I said, “F, you’re at the river with me, everything is ok,” and it was absolutely miraculous – total relief just washed over her face, and in an instant, she was back to normal!

Of course for a minute I just tried to continue the calming vibes without getting into what happened, but after she seemed ok, I asked her what she could remember of the experience. She didn’t explain it too well then, but combining what she told me then as well as after she came down, the upshot was this: she was standing by the sink, trying to stop coughing and all of that, and she looked outside, and everything was so bright, she said, and kept getting brighter until it became so bright she couldn’t handle it anymore and everything started turning black. The only way to describe what happened next was that she entered a waking nightmare in which she was thinking all of this crazy stuff about people she knew, and she become completely lost in her own horrifying dream world. I can assure you she did not over exaggerate the power of the event. If anything, she downplayed it. She was completely gone, completely out of this realm of consciousness.

After we calmed down, we went back into the den and had an uneventful afternoon watching movies with M. She remained completely calm throughout the rest of the experience.

It’s anyone’s guess as to what happened. I think it was basically an inexperienced user biting off way more than usual. There is, however, a definite lesson to be learned here: RESPECT MARIJUANA. A lot of people, especially people who’ve been smoking pot a long time, tend to downplay the effects of pot. However, people who are truly in touch with their minds understand that, especially at high doses, pot can be completely overwhelming in a very trippy/psychedelic sort of way.

 

^^^ that just makes me wanna smoke more....

 

Thats crazy! your the first person I've heard to describe that event besides myself! It has happened to me before also, and I think it has something to do with lack of oxygen. For me, I had just ridden my bike down and then up a hill (To purchase a blunt wrap) on a 100+ degree day. Then, I got back and fealt dehydrated and then we smoked the blunt like 2 min. after I had gotten back. It was then that everything slowy got super bright, like glowing it was hella trippy if I hadn't fealt so sick, and almost past out. I almost couldn't see either, it was so bright. But i just went home and drank hella water and chilled a bit. Im sure I smoked again later.

~Dub

 

I fuckin wish I could still get that high...

 

Happned to me once to from a lack of oxeygen, I took a large whip it form a ballon, and its was just after smoking the most weed at the time I had ever smoked, I was gone for aobut 10-20 seconds, in my own car asking people I didint reconize where I was!

 

haha fuck yea man i was thinking the same thing

 

There was this girl who a friend brought over once. Had I known she was 14 I would have never let her smoke but she told us she was 18, and looked it.

Anyway, we were passing the bgong around and she started saying "Oh my God I'm rising I'm rising. Hold me down."
To humor her we took turns putting our hands on her shoulders to "hold her down" so she wouldn't float off into space like she thought she would.
Needless to say, we never invited her to smoke with us again.

There have been several times when I've seen people practically lose it, both times from eating happy baked goods. I saw Sweet Marina collapse from too many happy rum balls at a new years eve party. Luckily she was with a few dozen of her closest friends. We sat her down on a couch and kept an eye on her.
Another time, on a camping party, Hans ate too many happy oatmeal cookies. I told him he only needed 1, he ate 3. An hour later his g/f comes up to me and says "Hans is in our tent and won't come out."
Me and his brother were able to coax him out and we sat him in the soft sand near the group campfire, just so we could keep an eye on him.

 

That's hysterical. I would feel kind of bad for her, though. That's like something stupid anyone could do their first time. She was probably worried she'd act really dumb beforehand, and after she got rejected she probably decided to hang out with the heroin addicts instead.

 

that was the funniest thing i've ever read. ever.


i have freaked out pretty hard on weed myself, and now that you mention it, the lack of oxygen theory seems like a winner. one day, my friend and i were outside smoking a joint and for some reason, i could not get it right that day and i was coughing after every single hit, really really hard. so we go back inside, and i have to lay down. as soon as i raise up, for some reason what i now know to be a typical body high was scaring me to death. that tingley sort of feeling felt bizarre to me. my heart started pounding and i could not figure out for the life of me where i was. my head was swimming. i couldn't concentrate on any thought long enough to form an idea about anything. i looked at the clock and burst into tears. all i could manage to choke out was "help... please, help... please? help.". i fell down every time i tried to stand up and i am told that when i layed back on the bed at one point my eyes rolled back into my head. it lasted for a good 30 minutes and the rest of the high was not so good either. really bizarre, and terribley embarassing. i'm told it was hilarious, and i don't doubt it for a second.

 

That's pretty crazy. I've had some really scary experiences from smoking that sound somewhat like that, except instead of things getting brighter then darker, things go immediately black. First, I get this sort of 'diamond-vision' where parts of my sight are blacked out and I'm looking through tiny diamond shapes at what's actually there, then it's completely gone. I also don't go into dream worlds, it's more that my body is awake and still moving and upright but my mind and all concepts of conscioussness and time are gone. It's hard to describe. I also don't go back to normal fast, I seem to be high for several hours and feel weird for a couple days. But anyway, lack of oxygen seems plausible, and all those types of scary experiences I had when I first started smoking. I guess it's just too much too fast...but I'm rambling. Glad she seemed to get back to normal quickly enough.

 

Yeah it was pretty crazy how quickly she got back to normal. I've definitely had some panic attacks on weed, nothing quite like this, I must say.

The "I'm rising I'm rising" thing is pretty hilarious. Sometimes it gets pretty heavy!

 

Ya dudes, with every toke i lose more and more focus. When im smoking it feels like im sorta releasing my inner emotions of the sober me, and i start thinking of random shit.

 

Very good read.

I've had a few bad trips in my day, but nothing like that. I'm glad you were able to level headedly assess the situation and take action to relieve her from her horrifying trip.

 

i agree with the lack of oxygen thing, that seems to be it.

ive had really fucked up experiences from weed, first time i ate brownies which was the first time id ever tried pot.. couldnt move or think and i was just like fuck.. too much man, and a couple other times

but i guess you just get better at avoiding them over time

 

it happens. Happened to me, from lack of oxygen. My peers thought I was having a seizure and they were about to check for my tongue so I wouldn't swallow it.

 

Nothing that close has EVER hppend to me, itd be cool if i got some expirienes like that under my belt for later kicks and giggles.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad some people have gotten something from the story. I think the lack of oxygen definitely plays a role. I've always found the whole "coughing makes you higher" thing pretty dubious, but I've noticed that my most harrowing pot experiences have always occurred after I struggled to breathe for a minute.

As for the guy who wants to trip balls on pot, I would suggest not smoking for at least a month, buying some serious chronic, and then taking the biggest bong rip you can possibly imagine. I know every time I do that, I'm in store for a wild ride for a few hours

 

seems like a real intense head rush. when i start to headrush and i forget to stop it, i trip the fuck out (i go blind essentially, all i see is crystalline patterns in blue-gray). almost fell down the stairs becaues of it... it seems to happen when i forget to breath.

 

I think I would fear getting high.. or at least ripping it like a master

 

yeah i know what you mean,but i love the freak out terror stuff,like to sit down i the middle of the garden at night and star to hear voices,sometimes i worry abaut being squizofrenic or some shit like that ,but i guess that just the influences from my mates telling me that i shold stop smoking and look for a clinic,welll to hell with them,love the shakes too you know?