…And Yet Another Testimony About Why Pot Is Great.

by Ty Clark

There was a point where I wasn’t completely closed off to the idea that there may be something wrong with me psychologically. Enough people tell you throughout your life and you get a little suspicious. Now that I’m pushing thirty (in a few days) I feel like I have a little perspective on both my situation and these “people” that have been telling me things. You see, the people who work for adult probation/detention are trained in how to treat an adult like a child. Which obviously makes sense because in order to have dealings with them, you first have to break their rules. My story is about the abuse of this tactic and how it has effected my life beyond probation.

Four years ago, this one time, I was bored and shopping at Target so I decided to buy some cocaine to enhance my shopping experience. I made the call, received said package, and headed to the men’s room for a sniff. Now the way this went down is still debatable because I had not been in the stall 3-4 minutes when the police busted in, tasers drawn. It scared the shit out of me, cocaine went EVERYWHERE if you can picture that. I went straight to jail.

After two weeks in George Baily (aka The Thunder Dome) I was released on prop. 36 which if you don’t know, is California’s way to treat felony drug offenders with rehab instead of prison. It also provides applicable felons with a chance to expunge their record. Seeing as how you can go to prison for three years for a half gram of Coke, I’d say it’s a good program. I digress. Part of being on prop. 36 is being in an out patient program and graduating it.

They had me enroll in U.C.S.D.’s Gifford clinic which treats duel diagnosis patients, people with both psychological problems and drug addiction and compared to most out-patient facilities, is not that bad. Right off the bat they have you meet with a psychiatrist. I do not think I am alone in this but I sometimes feel anxious or depressed due to the constant emotional roller coaster that is life. That’s pretty normal I think. Well the psych told me that I should be on medication and prescribed me two types, one was for blood pressure I believe. Clonasipam and colonodine and that mix made me feel pretty rad. I Took these two for some time until I stopped taking the blood pressure stuff. The other one, clonasipam, needs a continuous increases in dosage to maintain effectiveness. Little did I know, this drug is Highly addictive and you cannot just stop taking it. To do so causes opiate-like withdrawal symptoms and what that means is that your sick, for a while. You can’t eat or sleep, your body hurts unbearably and you hallucinate a bit. Lots of cold sweats too.

I have been off probation for a good two years and was still taking this drug until currently when people I knew started noticing the difference in my personality that I did not realize. After being confronted, I made a plan to quit. First, I tried going to VOA (Volunteers of America) and was turned away but told to come back in a few days. When I went back, they once again turned me away saying that I needed a medical detox. I actually agree with this, I was just willing to kinda rough it out at that point. I did not know what to do to get off that shit so, I called my Grama. My Grama, the angle that she is, found me a spot to detox at her friends house in East County. These wonderful people let me stay for ten days so I could get through the rough part. The really cool thing about staying there was that everyone smoked LOTS of weed.

I used to be an avid weed head but quit for probation. While I was sick, I was taking various medications to deal with the symptoms. Nothing I had really helped. It was only when I smoked weed that I had any relief. In fact, I’d go as far to say that I don’t know if I would have made it without. Even being clean from that shit has been tough. My only remedy, weed. Every time I wanna use I just smoke and my higher consciousness gets the best of me.

Now, I’m not sayin’ that everyone should smoke all of the time, but, marijuana has really helped me change my life. Well, that and Burners (people who go to Burning Man) but that’s a different story. Please support your local pot dealers and growers and thank you for hearing me out.

[Below, “Cannabis Sativa” as drawn by Koehler.]

Leave a Reply