April 12, 2017

Idaho

This is not going to try to persuade anybody's opinion on cannabis. This is not the intent. My intent is to document my experience of using cannabis to self-treat chronic pain, decreased appetite and insomnia in an illegal state. This is also a way for me to vent and talk about cannabis, as I can't really do so with my family or social media (ie illegal state).

For the first entry, I will give some background to my cannabis use. I've only been using cannabis for about a month or two now. My initial thoughts around cannabis were very spiritual, but I then became more acclimated to the effects of it, and realized the physical and mental benefits it could provide along with the spiritual experiences I would sometimes have.

My mother is the only family member aware of my cannabis use. She dissaproves (and worries), but her only issue is the illegality of it. I understand this perspective, and it saddens me that the act of self medication on an illegal substance forces her to imagine me going to jail. For this reason, I usually lie to her about when I am taking it. Obviously I'm not okay with this, but I don't know what else to do.

I take cannabis on different occasions. Since my parents disagree, I try not to go home high. I have came home to fall asleep high (which is wonderful compared to insomniac nights, not to mention it makes my jaw feel better), but not very often. I mainly use cannabis at a friend's house whose parents know we smoke. We wait until everyone is asleep, to make sure that nobody smells it if it leaks out of the room. The parents know we do, but they don't want the children to know we do. Which is understandable. It's one of the safest smoke spots.

I've smoked in other areas, some more risky than others. Finding a safe smoke spot is a balance between distance and covert. I can drive hours to go out into the mountains, that would provide quite a bit of stealth, however not ideal just for a good night's rest. I can drive 40 minutes to the desert, which I have done often. Once out there, I fall asleep in my van. I've never had issues out there, except on weekend nights.

Then there's an even closer spot, only about 15 minutes away, that provides a decent amount of cover. It's still new to me, but I think it will be a repeat occurence. I've only had one close call with nearby smoke spots, and no close calls with the far ones. I won't be going back to the spot where I had a close call.