The First Time

Interested in hearing some of the best descriptions of cannabis consumption experiences?

For many, it can be a hazy, but memorable experience, especially that first time. Here are a few accounts of some interesting cannabis encounters.

“I felt I had come upon a fantastic secret; to change worlds, I had only to spread a bit of jam on a biscuit and eat it.” -Composer and author Paul Bowles, recorded in his journal when visiting Tangiers, Morocco and trying majoun for the first few times

​​"The first time I got high, not the first time I smoked, but the first time I appreciated it, stands out in my mind like a red-letter day in my life. I was with a Columbia friend, Walter Adams, and he had this car, so we started driving around Broadway and Ninety-first Street, and we got lost...So we finally got the car turned in the right direction, finally figured where Broadway was...We went into a corner restaurant and sat down at a round table in a brightly lighted old-fashioned ice cream parlor. It was old-fashioned, but modern style with Formica tables. I sat down and ordered a black and white sundae, and this great plate came up. A huge, round, beautiful, creamy, white ice cream and this giant dishful, this great mound of snowlike ice cream, but absolutely sweet and pure and clean and bright, and some thick, great-tasting, hot—almost steaming—chocolate syrup on top of it which, when touching the cold ice cream, formed a kind of hard chewy candy. And I remember putting a spoon into it and putting it into my mouth and saying what an amazing taste it had. I had never really appreciated what an outstanding invention a black and white ice cream sundae was—and how cheap it was, too! How giant and filling it was, but also what an amazing contrast of hot chocolate and moist, cool ice cream, and I was really fascinated by the whole ice cream culture. Then halfway through I realized the whole place was swaying back and forth, and the lights were dazzling. The sky was infinitely extensive and spacious, the plate-glass windows of the restaurant showed people walking back and forth with their dogs, smiling and chattering or weeping. And it was a grand moment of synchronicity; everything was joyful and gay, and it was the first and only ice cream sundae I’ve ever enjoyed in my life; everything else has been anticlimax." -Writer Allen Ginsberg in a 1982 High Times interview

“When you smoke herb, herb reveal yourself to you. All the wickedness you do, the herb reveal it to yourself, your conscience, show you yourself clear, because herb make you meditate. Is only a natural t’ing and it grow like a tree.” -Musician Bob Marley, in a 1975 press interview in the context of Rastafarianism

“The first thing I noticed was that I began to hear my saxophone as if it were inside my head…then I began to feel the vibrations of the reed much more pronounced against my lip…I found I was slurring much better and putting just the right feeling into my phrases…all the notes came easing out of my horn, like they’d already been made up, greased and stuffed into the bell, so all I had to do was blow a little and send them on their way, one right after the other, never missing, never behind time, all without an ounce of effort…I felt I could go on playing for years without running out of ideas and energy. There wasn’t any struggle; it was all made to order and suddenly there wasn’t a sour note or a discord in the world that could bother me…I began to preach my millenniums on my horn, leading all the sinners to glory.” He also said, “it’s a funny thing about marihuana- when you first begin smoking it you see things in a wonderful, soothing, easygoing new light. All of a sudden the world is stripped of its dirty gray shrouds and becomes one big bellyful of giggles, a spherical laugh, bathed in brilliant sparkling colors that hit you like a heat wave. Nothing leaves you cold anymore; there’s a humorous tickle and great meaning in the least little thing, the twitch of somebody’s little finger or the click of a beer glass. All your pores open like funnels, your nerve-ends stretch their mouths wide, hungry and thirsty for new sights and sound and sensations; and every sensation when it comes, is the most exciting one you’ve ever had. You can’t get enough of anything - you want to gobble up the whole goddamned universe just for an appetizer. Them first kicks are a killer.” -Jazz musician Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow from his book Really the Blues

Whether you’ve had a memorable first time or it’s a foggy, aged memory, whether you’ve never smoked or you’ve been consuming for years, everyone’s consumption is personal and individualized. It’s all about the body and mind involved in the experience as well as the the day, circumstance, and type of cannabis.

Contact Elucidation Strategies for cannabis educational services.