If one can remember anything about cannabis, it\u2019s often the first time\u2014and the last time\u2014one imbibed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything else is a blur of puff-puff-pass, gurgling bong water or the electric rush of realizing those were pot brownies about half an hour after eating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first time was with my lifelong pal, O., in the early \u201980s, during Christmas break our freshman year in high school. Boomer parents in that transitional period between hippie and yuppie-dom were pretty laissez faire about how they stowed their stashes. We found it, we smoked it, then proceeded to eat all the candy in the house while watching a random VHS training tape of a domestically challenged person learning to use a spatula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last<\/em> time I smoked pot was during the pandemic when a bumper crop of new cannabis businesses were showering the media with free samples delivered to our home offices. I appreciated the descriptions of the products\u2019 potential effects and how much of any particular compound they contained. This legislated development was a far cry from the chemical Russian roulette that casual and infrequent users like myself had long endured (despite the salesmanship of the mulletted 30-somethings dealing weed from their dirt bikes, who circled Petaluma High like mustachioed vultures).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like most people of a certain age, I prefer my weed Fentanyl-free and also, just generally free. So, when a media care package arrived, I seized the opportunity to momentarily put down my perennial wine glass and shift into some professional pot smoking. Included in the review kit was a pre-rolled joint, which I immediately thought should take the mantle from sliced bread as one of innovation\u2019s greatest conveniences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I lit it and took a drag. Bueno. I took another. Buennno. Another. Buennnnno. And then \u2026 it hit me all at once. I went from bueno to \u201cbueNope\u201d as I suddenly felt like I was inside a falling elevator\u2014a simultaneous sensation of vertigo and claustrophobia, with a liberal smattering of my favorite, dementophobia\u2014the fear of going insane\u2014adding a certain extra elan to the moment. And by moment, I mean the hours it took to finally come down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My experience may be unusual since my neurochemistry is a high wire act of psychoactive stratagems designed to minimize manic panic. Add any exotic ingredient, and this Mulligan stew boils right over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, I\u2019m also curious. Not least because I\u2019m susceptible to the word \u201clounge,\u201d which I recently spied on a billboard looming over Petaluma\u2019s Midtown. My favorite reptile is lounge lizard, and \u201clouche,\u201d my default sensibility, is just a typo away from it. The billboard read: \u201cThe Lounge at Mercy\u2014Come Smoke & Chill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to new state regulations, local dispensaries like Mercy Wellness can now invite customers to enjoy their purchases on-site, opening a new business lane to our local bud industry. More to the point, as a man with perceptibly \u201cno chill,\u201d I\u2019m in the market to get some. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do I smoke weed and chance, once again, angering the wine gods upon whose purple seas I\u2019ve long floated this operation? Will I finally be smited into total madness? Or am I less likely to lose my shit in a public setting surrounded by professionals? After all, it\u2019s called The Lounge<\/em>, not The Panic Room<\/em>\u2014what could possibly go wrong? But if anyone sees me wielding a spatula, stand back\u2014I\u2019ve seen the video, and I know how to use it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thanks to new state regulations, local dispensaries can invite customers to enjoy purchases on-site, opening a new business lane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1200,"featured_media":20181441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"0","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[10633],"tags":[1976,295,293],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n