My first cannabis experience

My first experience of cannabis was certainly not conventional and due to the nature of the experience my memory is particularly vague, however, I’ll do my best to recall what happened.

I must have been no older than 13 and was quietly relaxing on the sofa minding my own business watching eastenders or the bill or whatever a young teenage boy watches on a school night when my brother came downstairs with a piece of cake for me from his recent trip to Amsterdam. Surprised by his apparent kindness in bringing some cake all the way from Holland for me, I happily devoured the large slice of chocolate cake which had a slightly strange taste, kind of like mud if I remember correctly and resumed my slumped position on the sofa. Surprised, not just by his friendly demeanour towards me, but his mates striking up conversation with me, I was simply happy to be accepted by him and his mates as they told me about how Amsterdam chocolate has a slightly strange taste and that its actually very expensive and I should be grateful to my brother for thinking of me when he was on holiday. 

They soon scarpered upstairs in fits of laughter which I didn’t understand at the time and I went back to watching whatever I was watching. It was from this point that the rest of my memory started to become rather hazy. What started as a rather upright seating position slowly descended to a horizontal position, aware of the heaviness of the rest of my body, I was surprised at my sudden tiredness considering it was only 8.30pm and I prized myself on the fact that I used to always stay up later than my friends, something that is remarkably important for 13 year old boys. The haziness in my head and the heaviness of my body started to acquire a new sensation, a brief fit of uncontrolled laughter while watching crime-stoppers, not generally known for its comedic value. It must have been about 9pm when my brother came down to ask if I was ok, at first with a smile on his face, then his smile slowly turning to a frown of concern, probably when he saw his pale 13 year old brother, semi-unconscious on the sofa unable to carry out the most menial tasks like getting a glass of water. His concern then blossomed into full on panic as he shouted at me to go to bed before our parents came home and he ran off upstairs somewhere. The fear in his face scared me and I started to panic even though I was unaware of what was happening. The last thing I remember about it was thinking about whether I was going to die.

That is about as much as I remember. I was woken the next morning for school feeling slightly delirious. I was blissfully unaware that I was carried to bed that night, unable to be woken enough to walk myself to bed. My attempts to not go to school because I thought I was ill failed miserably and was told by my mum I was given some “funny” cake from Amsterdam, that’s why I tired and that I should go to school and stop moaning. As I pieced the jigsaw together over the next few days, I realised what had happened, in part because my brother was almost kicked out the house and by a friend who funnily enough, had gone through a very similar experience with one of their brothers, although by the sounds of things I came off slightly worse. Anyway, as the revelation that I had been drugged by my brother spread around school, for a few days I was increasingly popular around school as people harassed me about my experience.

As I say, the experience was far from enjoyable, being drugged without knowing so is not a pleasurable experience, particularly when it is done by a family member and you are convinced you are going to die at the pitiful age of 13. However, compared to my first experience of alcohol, the experience was positively enlightening; waking up in a hospital bed at 14 having been carried from a house party by two paramedics in a wheelchair was certainly not one of my proudest moments. Nevertheless, I am now thankful I had these experiences at the age I did as it has saved me having any embarrassing repetitions of these moments in later life.