Let’s talk about our first time. Mine was when I was sixteen…

I’m child number five out of six in our family. When my older brothers and sisters got married and moved out, us younger siblings would often visit them to babysit their kids – or just to get out of the house, away from mom and dad for a night…

Escaping To Judy’s

We weren’t allowed to watch TV at home, so I often escaped to my sister Judy’s house, where the TV was on 24/7, to get my TV fix. During my teenage years I would escape to Judy’s and stay up all night watching cable TV on weekends and eating junk food – it was my teenage heaven. I was an innocent teen, and hadn’t learned about drugs and drinking yet…

Judy and her husband Mike weren’t drinkers, but one night in 1980, when I was sixteen I found out they were secretly pot smokers! The evening began with a phone call from Tony (not his real name), a navy guy who had just docked in Long Beach, and he wanted to come visit. Mike and Judy invited him over and two hours later he showed up, having ridden a ten-speed bike from Long Beach to Orange (over 30 miles). When he walked in the house, he pulled a big bag of marijuana out of his pants and said, “let’s roll one!”

Mike and Tony busied themselves with cleaning the herb, removing all the stems and seeds. I watched them, curious, because I had never seen marijuana before. Growing up Christian, I had been cautioned, many times over, about the evils of marijuana. I couldn’t believe my own sister actually smoked this forbidden plant…

My sister Judy walked back into the living room, having retrieved a box of their paraphernalia from deep in the recesses of their closet. She dug around in the box and came up with the device she was looking for – a Power Hitter!

The Power Hitter

Let me explain a Power Hitter…

First off, the goal of a Power Hitter is to get as much smoke into your lungs as possible. To do this, you first roll up a good joint. Then unscrew the lid of the Power Hitter and insert the joint into the opening inside the lid. Light the joint, taking a hit or two from the top of the lid. Now, take the lit joint, still inserted in the inside of the lid and screw the lid back on the Power Hitter. Now you have a lit joint inside a plastic bottle with a small carburetor hole, and an opening for smoke to come out when you squeeze the bottle. Are you getting the picture?

Next you hold the opening on the lid of the Power Hitter up to your lips and squeeze the bottle. Inhale, because a tsunami of smoke is coming your way, and it will force itself into your lungs – guaranteed!

Tony and Mike had rolled up a handful of joints and Tony placed one in the Power Hitter and lit it up. He screwed the lid back in place and squeezed the bottle, shooting a stream of smoke into his mouth. Then he passed it over to Mike, who took a big hit and gave a hit to Judy.

Judy took the Power Hitter and turned to me, “Just inhale,” she said, and before I knew it my lungs were full of marijuana smoke as she squeezed the bottle. Not knowing I should hold the smoke in I quickly exhaled. Neither Judy or Mike, or Tony were paying any attention to me, nor did they give me any idea what to expect from smoking pot.

The Power Hitter passed around the room several more times as Tony, Mike and Judy burned through the joints they had rolled up. I vaguely remember taking at least three or four huge hits from the Power Hitter.

I didn’t feel a thing.

Later, I walked up to the corner convenience market where my brother David worked the graveyard shift and hung out with him until the early morning hours. Looking back on this moment I know I must have been stoned, but my distinct memory was that I felt nothing. Nada. Zip. This puzzled me for a long time.

A Learned Experience

Years later I discovered that feeling the effects of pot is a learned experience. As I understand it, we learn to be high on marijuana. Please note – there can be a big distinction between when you first you smoke pot and the first time you actually get high… there was for me!

It wasn’t until I had a friend explain to me how to properly smoke pot, how to hold in a hit, that I was able to feel and enjoy the herb. For me, getting high was a learned experience… but this is, of course, my experience – some people get stoned off their ass the first time they smoke…

This brings us back to set and setting. What is your mindset, your expectations going into a sesh? When I hadn’t smoked pot before I had no expectations. No one explained to me anything about this plant or the experience I’d have when I smoked it.

If my sister had taken just a few minutes to explain to me that I should hold the hit in, and then walk me through that first high, my first time would have been 100% different. Truly, a missed opportunity. Luckily, that didn’t scar me in any way, and here I am, forty years later… a happy and well-adjusted stoner. 😉

When I started smoking pot regularly, and enthusiastically, several years after this, I made it a point to walk every person I got stoned for their first time through the process – this is the pipe, this is the herb, here’s how you pack a bowl, this is how you take a hit, hold it in, this is what I’m feeling… I got dozens of people stoned for their first time, and I made sure they had the best adventure possible!

I’ve become convinced that being mindful about smoking the herb will improve your highs… thinking about the smell, the flavors, the effects – all of this will add to the sesh. This is because for many people – like me – marijuana is a learned experience, and the more you know, the better your highs!

Until tomorrow, best of health.

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Until later, best of health ??