The effects marijuana had on me varied from when I’d smoke sparingly to when I would smoke weed everyday. The effects of weed would change drastically based on my tolerance. When abstaining from smoking the marijuana plant I’d get intense withdrawal symptoms. This article is meant to summarize the stages I experienced from smoking weed.
Stage 1 – The Beautiful Low Tolerance Effects from the Marijuana Plant
In the beginning, smoking weed induced an incredibly psychoactive experience. For someone who’s never experienced drugs, it can be hard to describe. It’s similar to drugs in the dissociative class but had it’s own twist to it. Dissociative drugs will cause a user to not correlate associations to their environment. A good example is we associate home as home which is why it feels different than a strangers house. One of the effects marijuana had was that it would make home feel strangely alienated in that I lacked association with it. It was almost like my home was a strangers house. Furthermore, the effects of weed could get so intense my own body could feel alienated. There’s an intense buzzing throughout the experience, I could feel the energy of the marijuana plant throughout my mind and body. This would make me very talkative and somewhat euphoric. It would be so intense at times I would get uncomfortable. Some of the more intense experiences would include what I refer to as “memory strobes”. It was as if my short term memory was so debilitated it would repeat similar to tracers. Every movement my body made I would repeat at a rapid rate numerous times. I would also have moments of introspection or feeling connected with the universe recognizing my place in it. I wouldn’t call smoking weed psychedelic as it was very different than typical psychedelics that act on the 5-HT2A receptors. I would, however, consider marijuana an atypical psychedelic. It altered my perception of reality to an extreme in a strange way that’s hard to describe. The psychedelic effects would typically last for an hour and I would be left with a warm relaxing afterglow.
Stage 2 – The Effects of Weed After a Tolerance Build
Over time as I continued to smoke weed regularly the effects would change. It was as if I skipped the initial hour of psychedelic effects and would jump right into the warm afterglow. This made the marijuana plant begin to become psychologically addictive. Whenever I would smoke weed I would instantly feel a big release of relaxation and energetic euphoria. It was a wonder drug that acted as a sedative and a stimulant that was semi-psychedelic. Because of this, it served many purposes. I could smoke the marijuana plant and get incredibly social or creatively inspired. I could also find the marijuana effects so relaxing I would lay down and get the best sleep of my life. The effects of weed could also be used to alter my perception of my environment and past experiences. This high level of enjoyment made it easy to smoke marijuana everyday.
Stage 3 – Marijuana Effects When I Would Smoke Marijuana Everyday | Addiction to Smoking Weed
After I would smoke marijuana everyday I would develop a significant tolerance to the marijuana plant. I would get nothing out of smoking weed even at very high amounts. I could sit there and smoke a gram of quality cannabis without feeling much more than a slight bit of relaxation. When I would quit smoking weed I would notice intense psychological withdrawal. This consisted of intense irritability where I would get enraged over the smallest things. I also struggled sleeping, when I managed to get any sleep at all I would have hyper-vivid creepy dreams and wake up in cold sweats. I struggled to eat solid food as it seemed extremely unappealing. I would have racing thoughts fueled by anxiety and worry. My perception of time would slow down and a day would feel like forever. I faced delusions like I would never be normal again. As soon as I hit any marijuana, even resin scraped out of a pipe, I would feel instant relief. It was a terrifying experience, it took 7-10 days for the symptoms to notably improve. This was the horrific stage I faced from marijuana effects on my perception. I definitely regret getting to where I’d smoke marijuana everyday.
I hope this video helped you understand the stages behind the the various marijuana effects. Below is a video from the author, subscribe to his channel for future video content.
Philip Markoff (Associate of Science) is an online influencer and thought leader on addiction education; he is known as his alias “CG Kid” who’s obtained a large audience primarily on YouTube as a vlogger and journalist. His current sobriety date from polysubstance chemical dependency is June 9th, 2013.