Philosophy of Use: Weed With Your Psychedelics?

When I was very young and I was first starting to research drugs and drug culture, I used to spend a lot of time reading trip reports on erowid.org (a great website, by the way). I saw that there were two common opinions about the subject of consuming cannabis with psychedelics. The first was that cannabis clouds one's trip and diminishes the profound nature of the experience. The other was that cannabis is great and mixing it with psychedelics makes the trip even more trippy. Getting to my purpose here, I thought it might be fun to explore this issue and provide my opinion on the subject.

I think this difference of opinion comes down to how one views psychedelics, cannabis, and their respective uses. There are quite a few people who treat weed as a party drug, much like alcohol. I can understand why someone who holds that opinion might be drawn to the idea that cannabis will "cloud" their trip. I, personally, view things differently, however. Weed doesn't slap you across the face with truth and self knowledge in the way that psychedelics do but that doesn't mean it has nothing to teach you. When one smokes, from my point of view, he or she does not "cloud" anything (except the room he or she smokes in). Cannabis, instead, works in unison with the psychedelic drugs. That "cloudiness" is the fog that is released as new doors open in the user's mind and will quickly fade as new vistas manifest themselves before the user. The two effects also seem to compliment each other. Cannabis is not psychedelic (I have heard people try to argue that it is, though) but it has some qualities (particularly, at higher doses) that are psychedelic-like. When one piles those effects of cannabis on top of a real psychedelic drug, he or she can reach new and interesting levels of self-exploration.

There are other benefits to combining weed with your psychedelics. We all know that psychedelic experiences can be difficult at times and we also know that marijuana can be very calming. Simply smoking a joint may make the difference between a freak-out and a fun trip. This means that those who fear changing their trip with weed may be missing out on using an important tool that could help them get through a "bad trip" (I actually don't believe in "bad trips" but I use the term for lack of a better one). In my mind, peace and comfort are worth more than a "purity test." Weed is your friend, so let her help you when she can.

Clearly, I am a supporter of using cannabis alongside psychedelics but that doesn't mean that there aren't reasons to avoid it in some cases. If you are very sensitive to cannabis and become paranoid from its effects easily, you may want to use caution before mixing it with any drug. Also, the way one consumes their cannabis matters. Some psychedelics can make your stomach feel very uneasy and so can some edibles. For this reason, it may be a good idea to confine you cannabis consumption to smoking or vaping while you trip. There are few things that are worse than trying to hose vomit off your patio in the dark while the walls are breathing around you because you don't want your dog to eat it and get way more than he bargained for.

As with all of these Philosophy of Use posts, this is just my opinion and it's worth only as much as anyone else's. That being said, if you have been reluctant to mix weed and psychedelics, I urge you to give it a try. I think you may find something extra that you would have otherwise missed. Just be smart about how you do it (or anything else, for that matter). I am curious to hear what your opinion is on this subject. What side of the argument do you fall on? Have you tried doing this before and, if so, did you find that it added anything to your trip?

Peace.

This was another installment in my Philosophy of Use series. If you liked this post, please feel free to check out my page for more similar content.

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