I've smoked exactly one joint in my life. I don't think I got high at all and didn't enjoy the experience. But I'm curious to know what folks find enjoyable about it. Does it just chill you out? Does it make you feel like you don't have a care in the world? I don't think I'd ever try smoking one again but idk I'd maybe try edibles in a vegan brownie or something.
one of the better descriptions I've heard is that it dramatically increases the sense of novelty in the user's immediate experience.
things I like doing I enjoy as if I am doing them for the first time again, making me more engaged. so like eating a favorite food/snack, watching an anticipated or favorite movie/tv show, playing a video game, painting/drawing, listening to music, etc. those are all things that I like normally, but would have a truly great time doing if I was high.
the shift in awareness and perspective, however subtle, also can pull a user out of a pattern of thinking and encourage them to be more focused on immediate surroundings, which I think is part of the general appeal of so-called intoxication that humans (and other animals) have driving them to seek out or revisit psychoactives.
I used to smoke weed multiple times a day and much preferred it to alcohol, because alcohol was far more impairing, would induce dumber decisions, and often resulted in hangovers.
it dramatically increases the sense of novelty in the user’s immediate experience.
This is spot-on. Whenever I smoke, not only do I get more into whatever I'm doing, I feel like I'm seeing it from a new and fun perspective. Being stoned makes everything more interesting.
I don’t think I got high at all and didn’t enjoy the experience
this is pretty common, usually because newbies don't know how to inhale properly (they just leave the smoke in their mouth or something). It's fun if you try it again.
Not feeling anything the first time is pretty typical. I didn't feel anything the first few times either. Once I did, it was pretty intense. These days it's much milder, mostly just a sort of relaxed feeling.
You should also know that edibles aren't really the same drug; THC is chemically altered by the digestive system. It's also a lot easier to overdo it with edibles and have a bad experience (in ways that aren't even really possible when smoking), so be careful about dosage.
adding to this, if you eat an edible and you don't feel anything after ~20 mins DON'T just eat another one, they take a while to kick in
otherwise it could hit you like a freight train and you will have a bad time
My depression often feels like I have a heavy cloud hanging over me, dragging on my physically and mentally. Weed temporarily lifts that cloud.
It also makes food way more appetizing and TikTok funnier
It temporarily reduces my chronic physical pains as well as my anxiety. Also when I'm high I feel like I'm super focused on media so it makes watching movies more fun
There's no hangover, nausea, or dehydration. I can remain physically coordinated enough to hike while mentally relaxed to the level of one beer. I can still think clearly and have normal control of my emotions. It doesn't cause sexual dysfunction or the physical effects of alcoholism. The flower is more complex than roses so it's interesting to explore. And finally, CBD is about as good as tylenol for inflammatory pain but without the liver toxicity.
How you describe here really appeals to me. I don't even drink much because I can't stand hangovers.
I personally have switched almost entirely from drinking to weed, and it's awesome to not have to commit to being in an altered state until I pass out and not getting hangovers.
Cannabis and psilocybin, the latter as microdoses if you want positive benefits (energy/creativity/anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects) without visuals, are both safe enough that my only concern is with the cleanliness of the supply. If you get a flower vaporiser it doesn't reach combustion temperature so you get more complex taste, comparable to a saison or sour, without any smoke to impact your lungs.
One time I ate all our kid’s breakfast burritos at 1am, pretty guilty explaining why I had nothing to feed her before school
i feel like this was the plot of an afterschool special when i was a kid
I hate to be this person, but if you're really curious then you should just dive in. Get a vape cart so you can control your intake, put on your favorite cartoon and make a day of it. The worst case scenario is that you have an unproductive and anxious afternoon!
But to answer your question, I smoke weed because it makes me happier. All of the bullshit that constantly drags me down sort of melts away as I think about my place in the collective consciousness and open myself up to new perspectives. One time I legit just gently picked up a live cockroach with my fingers and set it outside - I would never have thought to do that sober. On the other side of the same coin, it offers near unlimited escapism, and that can be dangerous in itself.
A nice side effect is that it makes me more compassionate and less quick to anger. When I started getting high around my family, they all commented on how much more agreeable I had become. I'm bipolar and I had an emotionally turbulent childhood, and after years of trying different medications and routines, weed has been the most beneficial thing for smoothing out those mood swings.
Pot is cool. But have you tried pot 2.0?
:stalin-smokin:
It's a pretty variable drug from person to person, some people do it to relax but for me it doesn't work that way and I'm definitely not alone. I wish it did sometimes, because that's what I use drinking for which is obviously much worse for your body.
For me, a previous poster who said that it increases the novelty of your experiences I think put it well. When I go through phases where I am using it, it's more to look at the world through an interesting new lens rather than to unwind (your brain makes new connections, e.g. revisiting old favorite movies or games or whatever can help you appreciate them in a new light). But this can be a double edged sword - the increase in the...immediate intensity, I guess I'd call it, in your experience can also bite some people in the ass. If you have existing anxiety for instance, it can make those thoughts much harder to shake off. And if you're in a stressful external setting, that can seem scarier and harder to cope with. It's why I only use weed on and off, and when I do I do it fairly occasionally. But again, for some people it just makes them feel calm and relaxed - it's a weird person-to-person drug like that!
Also be careful with edibles if you're new to the experience. They can come on MUCH stronger than smoking if you're not careful - it's hard to regulate how high you're getting until it's too late, since there's a long delay between ingestion and feeling stoned.
i also have a committed relationship with anxiety and have had some anxious times with weed. i've definitely noticed my experience and usage was different than most of my friends, regardless of strain/cultivar. i know a lot of people that say it makes them want to be lazy all day, and that is not my situation at all. if i am on my own, i will tidy up my entire house and/or organize a workspace at a nice steady and thoughtful pace. there's some kind of nexus where weed, anxiety, and energy all come together and let me spend hours on something productive but typically mundane. i literally used to wake and bake every sunday and deep clean my entire house with music on, and it was probably my favorite day of the week due to this.
i will partake in a group setting if i feel comfortable and have calm/chill friends around, but it wasn't really the "party" drug for me the way it can be with others. as an older person, i smoke less often and tend to "use" it to get things done in a more enjoyable way.
i have a friend that likes to get blazed for pretty much everything, including work, meeting new people at bars, sit down dinners with his parents [who do not like nor approve of his heavy use]. i can't even count how many times i have been invited to roast a jay with this clown expecting to be just sitting around shooting the breeze afterward, when suddenly we're going running to some big family dinner and i have to summon my preternatural ability to appear, converse, and behave normally with older people looking to catch up with me.
i do not get the appeal, but he seems to really love being secretly stoned as shit around a group of people who aren't. seems like a waste of a good time to me, but people are different.
it's a mood enhancer, and, like the other poster said, increases the novelty of things. food tastes brighter, physical sensations feel better (sex/masturbation), your favorite episodes of the simpsons are funnier, if you like feeling nostalgia, it's great for that too. beyond that, it makes me much more introspective and meta-aware of my thoughts. And i'm definitely more creative. Watch this; it describes how/why weed feels the way it does. also, early on, i had quite a few "i don't think it's doing anything" highs; i think my brain had to learn to recognize the feelings. i didn't start getting high until i was in my 30s and it was really fun to reassess my life from a high perspective; and i wish i had started years earlier.
As well as all the other answers in this thread, I find it makes a good reward for getting shit done and helps put a bit of a narrative swing into the end of my day.
Smoking weed helped me break an alcohol habit that was not particularly healthy, I'd just drink after work to attempt to de-stress. As an added bonus, all that time spent being introspective and reassessing my life lead me to realize that I'm a lot happier just being honest with myself about being trans, which was another positive improvement.
