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Fictional marijuana

Tamske

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I don't smoke anything and I never will. The main character in my newest writing project, however, uses marijuana. As it plays a crucial part in the story, I want to get the details right.

Looks:
How does a joint look like? Made from ordinary cigarette paper? Cylindrical or conical form? Crumpled like it was hand-rolled?
How does the marijuana itself look like?
Texture: powder (fine? coarse?), sawdust, curly bits like tobacco, shredded leaves like the ones you'd get after chopping tarragon?
Color: brown, greyish brown, brownish grey, raw umber, a greenish tint?
Is the marijuana always combined with tobacco or is it smoked pure? What is the commonest?

Smell:
How does it smell when somebody is smoking it in your vicinity, but you haven't smoked it yourself? Sweet, tart, sharp, spicy?
Does it differ when it's weak or not? When somebody is blowing it in your face?
How does it smell when you're smoking yourself?

Taste:
How does it taste?

Effect:
What are the effects of a joint or two? Blurred senses, a longer reaction time, the feeling that the outside world doesn't matter? Does it diminish sadness/angst?
 

Patches

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Looks:
How does a joint look like? Made from ordinary cigarette paper? Cylindrical or conical form? Crumpled like it was hand-rolled?
This is all dependent upon how you roll it, but wikipedia has a picture of a fairly standard joint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joint.jpg
Very thin paper. They sell them to roll your own cigarettes. Cylindrical or conical is all pretty dependent upon who rolled it. either or. But they pretty much always have that like 'twisted' tip at the end of the paper. A well-rolled one probably won't be crumpled.
How does the marijuana itself look like?
Texture: powder (fine? coarse?), sawdust, curly bits like tobacco, shredded leaves like the ones you'd get after chopping tarragon?
Color: brown, greyish brown, brownish grey, raw umber, a greenish tint?
Is the marijuana always combined with tobacco or is it smoked pure? What is the commonest?
This is very variable upon the quality of the weed and different strains of plants. There are some kinds called 'Purple haze' and 'Purple Kush' etc because the plant has a very purple look to it. But your average teen/college kid probably isn't going to be smoking that. When you purchase it it's going to come in a "bud" that looks like this:
marijuana-pot-buds.jpg


Basically, in order to smoke it you have to pick the leaves off of the stems. You don't want to be smoking stems, so you have to make sure you have just a pile of the leaves to put inside the joint.

A "joint" usually means it's pure weed. No tobacco. If it is weed and tobacco rolled together, it is usually called a "spliff". Most teens/college kids will prefer joints.

Smell:
How does it smell when somebody is smoking it in your vicinity, but you haven't smoked it yourself? Sweet, tart, sharp, spicy?
Does it differ when it's weak or not? When somebody is blowing it in your face?
How does it smell when you're smoking yourself?
Again, different quality weeds will smell different. Your typical college kid is probably going to smoke something that has an earthy, musty smell, and even slightly similar to to the smell of a skunk. Some weed smells strongly like skunk, actually, and is actually called 'skunk weed'. Its more expensive though.
Taste:
How does it taste?
Pretty much the same as it smells. Though, because the smoke is so hot it usually burns your throat a bit as you're smoking, so I usually don't notice taste so much. It burns more than cigarette smoke.
Effect:
What are the effects of a joint or two? Blurred senses, a longer reaction time, the feeling that the outside world doesn't matter? Does it diminish sadness/angst?

There are two primary strains of weed. They are called "Sativa" and "Indica". Indica is described as a body-high, or couch-lock weed. Basically your entire body feels sluggish and weighed down, and you just don't want to move. Its relaxing, calming, sedated almost. Sativa is more of a cerebral high and doesn't make your body feel so sluggish. It's considered a more 'active' weed. It will make you feel energetic and optimistic. It makes you very 'spacey'.

Most weed is going to be a mixture, but sometimes you get weed that feels 'more like' one or the other. So if you wanted your characters to turn into couch-potatoes and just be lazy after smoking, you could lean more toward the indica 'symptoms'. And similarly, if you wanted them to be active and go out and do something you could choose a more 'sativa' high.


This is... *cough* clearly in no way related to experience... And is all hypothetical.... But let me know if any of that was hard to understand.
 

Tamske

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@ Patches: thanks; character is indeed a high school pupil (16 years). It wasn't hard to understand at all, on the contrary, it was very clear. I'm certainly going to use bits of it, so thanks again :)

@ Murkrow: Please tell me where I can find live dragons to fight, then?
There's a reason I chose fiction writing for my "art" - I can let my heroes do a lot of things I would never do (smoke weed, get a nice tattoo), which I'm not able to do (like running a mile, repair a car, be an ESTJ, or, to get into cooler categories, skillfully wield a battle axe) and which are even impossible in our current world (like fighting dragons or travelling through black holes).
 

Shimmy

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Patches gave a pretty good description already.

I would like to add that you can use a weed grinder to grind bigger chunks. Weed is fairly dry, so it crumbles rather than turn into a pulp.

Also, I think the weed over here in the Netherlands is much stronger than what patches is talking about, I don't know anybody who would roll a joint without any tobacco. Also I don't know what a skunk smells like but most weed I smelled had a very penetrating smell. That said, when I used to smoke weed I did usually get stuff called "superskunk".

For me personally:

Sativa high: Desire to stand up or walk eventhough I feel physically slightly weaker. Lot's of mental energy. In the mood to laugh. Desire for social contact. Sloooooow physical reflexes. Lot's of quick and random thoughts (I always have this, but even more so when I'm high). If you ever watched "that 70's show" where the gang get's high in Eric's basement, that's more of a sativa high,

Indica high: Heavy feeling in limbs. Long but mostly unorganized thought processes. heavily diminished energy level and desire to do anything. Increase in awareness of environment and own comfort levels, but no desire to really do anything with that information. Slurred speech and slow walking. Half closed, sometimes slightly bloodshot, eyes.

Weed is also a mood enhancer. It can make you more anxious if you are already anxious, more depressed if you are already depressed, but also more outgoing if you are already outgoing. When I'd smoke it at a festival or party I'd get more social and less self-conscious, but when I'd smoke it at home I'd get more concentrated.

Also, when combined with copious amounts of alcoholic beverages I tend to get completely numb, have a very high heart rate, and I did even faint once. So if you plan on making your character drunk and stoned at the same time, remember that he either has to be a hard core drug addict used to this kind of mental and physical torture, or that someone has to call an ambulance.
 

swordpath

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Smells a bit like skunk when you catch a second-hand whiff, IMO... Very distinctive smell. You're not going to confuse the smell of weed to any sort of tobacco or other smoked products.

I smoked a couple of puffs, on two occasions, when I was in high school but I didn't know how to inhale (and didn't get high). Don't remember what it tasted like.
 

lowtech redneck

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Weed is also a mood enhancer. It can make you more anxious if you are already anxious

Also, when combined with copious amounts of alcoholic beverages I tend to get completely numb, have a very high heart rate, and I did even faint once. So if you plan on making your character drunk and stoned at the same time, remember that he either has to be a hard core drug addict used to this kind of mental and physical torture, or that someone has to call an ambulance.

1.) This is very true (I have OCD, so this happened frequently to me, part of the reason I prefer booze now).

2.) The 'numbness' is accurate, but its not something most people would call an ambulance for (I don't know how physically dangerous it is, but I almost never smoked weed without at least a beer or two).

Another symptom of a marijuana high is the feeling that time has either sped up or slowed down (one minute you'll have thought about a hundred seemingly brilliant ideas and thinking that an hour has gone by, the next you'll focus on a minute detail for what seems lke a couple of minutes but turns out to be an hour, etc).

Oh, and food tastes very very good. Your bladder also becomes numb (one of my OCD attacks while high was the worry that I would piss my pants without realizing it, but that never happened-numb is not the same as loose).
 

Tamske

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Thanks again all of you!

I'll take the Dutch type, because I'm from Belgium and if there's any weed around here it would be that sort.
What's wrong with weed - I'm not going to drug my main character into a coma. He's got big problems at school and tries to escape them rather than confront them. In the story, the weed is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. The novel is not totally anti-drugs, even if I refuse to try. I've got strong reasons for not trying it myself (it's illegal, I'm asthmatic, I don't really want to experience it anyways even if I want to know some details).

I don't really like the mood enhancer effect. I thought marijuana was a sedative and I've read somewhere (a magazine at the doctor's) about someone using it to escape problems, to numb down (negative) feelings. That's why my character is using it. Do I need to get him another drug, then? Or does the placebo effect do the trick: he believes it will make him forget problems, so he is already quite calm and looking forward to a high far away from reality when he starts smoking, and the weed enhances this feeling?
 

Shimmy

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1.) This is very true (I have OCD, so this happened frequently to me, part of the reason I prefer booze now).

2.) The 'numbness' is accurate, but its not something most people would call an ambulance for (I don't know how physically dangerous it is, but I almost never smoked weed without at least a beer or two).

Another symptom of a marijuana high is the feeling that time has either sped up or slowed down (one minute you'll have thought about a hundred seemingly brilliant ideas and thinking that an hour has gone by, the next you'll focus on a minute detail for what seems lke a couple of minutes but turns out to be an hour, etc).

Oh, and food tastes very very good. Your bladder also becomes numb (one of my OCD attacks while high was the worry that I would piss my pants without realizing it, but that never happened-numb is not the same as loose).

Concerning #2: One or two beers with will usually be okay. But both drugs enhance each other's effect to such an extent that the effects when you combine these drugs are much greater than the sum of it's parts. I have fainted when combining these drugs, and usually I will wake up with bruses (from falling or walking into things) without remembering how I got them. A friend of mine once called an ambulance because I was in such a bad shape right after smokeing a spliff when drunk (I had fainted, the world was going circles and my limbs wouldn't work. After a minute or so I got a bit better and eventually the ambulance didn't come.)

Thanks again all of you!

I'll take the Dutch type, because I'm from Belgium and if there's any weed around here it would be that sort.
What's wrong with weed - I'm not going to drug my main character into a coma. He's got big problems at school and tries to escape them rather than confront them. In the story, the weed is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. The novel is not totally anti-drugs, even if I refuse to try. I've got strong reasons for not trying it myself (it's illegal, I'm asthmatic, I don't really want to experience it anyways even if I want to know some details).

I don't really like the mood enhancer effect. I thought marijuana was a sedative and I've read somewhere (a magazine at the doctor's) about someone using it to escape problems, to numb down (negative) feelings. That's why my character is using it. Do I need to get him another drug, then? Or does the placebo effect do the trick: he believes it will make him forget problems, so he is already quite calm and looking forward to a high far away from reality when he starts smoking, and the weed enhances this feeling?

Though I'm by no means an addiction expert, I think you can take marijuana as a form of escapism. Someone once told me about his weed smoking habbit that he smoked whenever he felt stressed or busy as a means to delay important work or decision he knew he had to make eventually. It wasn't helping him and he didn't feel better when smoking, but it was just the easier alternative to doing a shitload of work and carying a lot of responsibility for your own life.
 

Patches

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I don't really like the mood enhancer effect. I thought marijuana was a sedative and I've read somewhere (a magazine at the doctor's) about someone using it to escape problems, to numb down (negative) feelings. That's why my character is using it. Do I need to get him another drug, then? Or does the placebo effect do the trick: he believes it will make him forget problems, so he is already quite calm and looking forward to a high far away from reality when he starts smoking, and the weed enhances this feeling?

This is my perspective on that... But this may not be everyones experience with weed:

It's almost like weed is an escape from reality. It's not that you totally detach from reality like you would on hallucinogens or something, it's just like.... Someone takes the "volume knob" and turns it down a few notches. Everything becomes slightly muted. You become very focused on yourself, your thoughts, physical feelings. The world around you is just a little less tangible. So outside stressors that come from your environment - family hassling you, school grades, whatever ails you - becomes a little less real. Hence you have less concern about them. Induced apathy.

At the same time, more internal emotions may be enhanced. General anxiety or depression that is not onset by an outside force... Like, if you ever feel depressed and you don't know why - Nothing is actually wrong... That kind of emotion can feel enhanced.

I'd love if someone else would confirm/deny how they feel about that description.

I'd say if your character has some sort of outside force making him feel like escaping, weed is the right choice to make him 'not care' about what is happening in reality.
 

Qlip

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Pot makes me feel trapped, like I've got something to do, somewhere to be, but I can't move to do it. Obviously everyone has different experiences.
 

Shimmy

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This is my perspective on that... But this may not be everyones experience with weed:

It's almost like weed is an escape from reality. It's not that you totally detach from reality like you would on hallucinogens or something, it's just like.... Someone takes the "volume knob" and turns it down a few notches. Everything becomes slightly muted. You become very focused on yourself, your thoughts, physical feelings. The world around you is just a little less tangible. So outside stressors that come from your environment - family hassling you, school grades, whatever ails you - becomes a little less real. Hence you have less concern about them. Induced apathy.

At the same time, more internal emotions may be enhanced. General anxiety or depression that is not onset by an outside force... Like, if you ever feel depressed and you don't know why - Nothing is actually wrong... That kind of emotion can feel enhanced.

I'd love if someone else would confirm/deny how they feel about that description.

I'd say if your character has some sort of outside force making him feel like escaping, weed is the right choice to make him 'not care' about what is happening in reality.

I think that's pretty acurate.
 

Spamtar

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As they say, write about what you know.

I agree with this. Since pot has been used by a good portion of the population (where your dragon analogy fails as an apple among oranges; if you are going to focus on this person from the first person your writing will reek of bullshit. If you insist on writing about this consider taking it from a third "straight" person's perspective and simply observe some stoner's.

I seen some people trip out from smoking buds but never (even when mixed with alcohol) have to call an ambulance. Unlike most drugs its virtually impossible to overdose to death on pot.

There is no single marijuana high. It varies with each strain one smokes and environs, company, and mental states one is in as well as use/experience mental predisposition.. The highs very from depressant/tranquilizer high to semi psychedelic trip; from relaxed state to paranoia to complacent to super hungry and often a mix of the above plus more.
 

Tamske

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Escape from reality is indeed what I need :)
My main character uses it to escape reality and suddenly (after a traffic accident, in which the weed only plays a small role - his reaction was too slow, but a clean person could have got the same sort of accident) finds himself in a fantasy world. At first he loves it - this is what he wanted all his life - but after a while he discovers that even here he needs to take responsibility. Thanks for all these helpful replies!

Please stop trying to get me to use weed. I won't. Those replies aren't helpful at all.
 
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