- ........ +J+ ....... i Lt m .... J-++~-
Reporter's brush with pot crushes senses,
creates confusion during trip to ttawafi
arijuana can be a
tricky ride. Some-
times you'll sit
comfortably in the
saddle, moved by
fresh insights and sensations.
Other times, you can be seized by
a paranoia that makes your brain
unspool as your horse gallops
through brambles.
Tremendous
insight often
accompanies tre-
KIRK
mendous para- By
noia. That's the
yin and yang of
who's in his early 60s put it this
way in an interview with the Jour-
nal:
' When you settle down and
get married and you have a full-
time job, you have kids, you're
not smoking pot like you used
to," he said. "I didn't miss it .... It
not only made me stupid, but it
put my brain in a different place
than the rest of
my family and
it wasn't fair to
ERICSON them or to me.
They're not on
the same wave-
Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page ....
marijuana.
"We don't want to treat this like
plutonium, but at the same time,
society is not ready for us to treat
this like oregano," John Novak,
operator of the webs|re 420leaks.
corn, told Northwest Leaf maga-
zine in a March 2014 article.
Indeed.
You can't overdose on pot, but
you certainly can get too high.
In the summer of 2007, my
wife, our two sons - ages 3 and 12
- and I were in Hawaii, where we
visited a couple who had retired
from Mason County and moved to
the island of Kauai. The wife had
worked for the state and her hus-
band had run gardens, including
for some South Sound tribes. The
husband taught youths the ways
of the garden.
The husband had a Hawaii
medical marijuana card because
marijuana helped him with his
ailments -- Type 1 and Type 2
diabetes -- and he grew a few
marijuana plants on his secluded
property for his own relief and
pleasure.
One Hawaiian afternoon, they
drove us down to a beach, and
then he and I left the womenfolk
and the kids behind so they could
enjoy the pacific Pacific and the
sandy, gently sloping beach. The
husband wanted to smoke mari-
juana in his car. I joined him.
I didn't smoke marijuana much
because, mainly, I found it put me
out of sync with my family and my
work.
Plus, I wasn't interested in mak-
ing the effort required to get it.
A marijuana grower in Seattle
length."
Fair enough, but this-was Ha ........ |-coutdr#t-stop it ,,, Paranoia rolled over
waii and I was a guest.
We sat in his ear, away fromthe pleasant sensations ef Hawaii |ike
the beach, and he rolled one. He
lit it, inhaled once and handed the tideover a sand castie+
it to me. I inhaled, and then he
started coughing. Big, deep, shut-
tering coughs. I couldn't hand it ground, though, I felt a creeping water. I asked him how he was.
back to him because of the cough- anxiety. You're away from your "Fine."
ing, so I was stuck with this thing, family. They're in the ocean. En- What are you doing?
I inhaled ... and inhaled. After tire families were swept away in "Just staring at the ocean."
a minute, he stopped coughing, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Silence. He wandered away
I handed it back to him. He took Sharks. Beach thugs. Sneaker from me. I followed. -He looked
another puff, handed it back to me waves. Somali pirates. Where's at me. I looked away. He moved
and started coughing again. So I, Dad when we needed him? again and I stayed with him
again, was stuck with this mar|- I couldn't stop it. Paranoia again.
juana for far too long. After a few rolled over the pleasant sensations "Dad?"
minutes of this dance, I realized of Hawaii like the tide over a sand ' res, Alex?"
I wasn't feeling its effects, which castle. ' You're acting weird."
was odd because my tolerance was I got out of the car and walked Alex wandered away again,
zero and I had just smoked a lot the hundred yards back to the but I didn't follow this time. I
of marijuana in a car with all the beach. My wife was talking with took deep breaths and tried to
windows rolled up. her friend. A few feet away to- chill the hell out, wishing I could
"Did you grow this?" I asked, ward the beach, our 3-year-old, purge this substance from my
looking for clues as to why it Ryan, was playing in the sand. system.
wasn't working. Our 12-year-old, Alex, was wading After I straightened up, Ryan
"Yeah." nearby in the ocean about 10 feet told me he said Alex was a ghost
"Where did you get the starts?" from the shoreline, because his brother's skin was
I don't recall his exact sen- Everything was as it should be. so white compared to the tanned
tence, but it was along the lines I went to the 3-year-old. I asked people on the beach.
of: "From a strain that was in the how he was doing, trying to recon- I pointed out that Alex was
Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam a struct from memory how I normal- ghost-like, not a ghost. I told him
couple of years ago." ly act. He turned from the ocean, he should have said he looked like
Oh. looked at me and said, "Dad, Alex a ghost, not that he was a ghost.
That fact immediately clicked is a ghost." Otherwise, you'll scare dad.
with a fragment in my brain that "What do you mean?"
knew this guy was a top-notch "Look at him. He's a ghost." ***
horticultural|st. In a sober state, I might have If you haven't had marijuana
And barn. played along, but in the state I for years, be careful. It really is
I began to notice life outside was in, my brain told whatever more potent these days. It's like
the car. The swaying palm trees, was left of me that my son can see a haircut. If you get too much cut
the deep color of the flowers and the future and something awful off, you can't put it back. And if
the landscape of a Hawaiian beach is about to happen to Alex. I have you smoke too much, or especially
started to pulse. Across the road to act. eat too much, you can't make it go
was a sign for a polo club. Odd, I moved quickly to my 13-year- away quickly.
but not overly weird. In the back- old and stood next to him in the That can ruin your trip.
