Written By: Morgan Hack | June 28, 2021

 Smoking cannabis affects every person differently and should not be taken lightly as it alters your senses. When people say they feel “high” it can be confusing if you haven’t experienced it yet. Also, something to keep in mind is that you don’t always get high the first or even first few times smoking weed. The active ingredient in cannabis is THC which gives you that high feeling as it enters your bloodstream through your lungs. 

Reactions to weed are based on severalfactors, including how you ingest it or smoke it, how often you use it, your physiology, whether you are smoking in conjunction with drinking alcohol, and the dose or strain you are using (Healthline). Strains are the different breeds of the physical cannabis plant, Indica or Sativa or a mix or both, called a Hybrid. A great resource to use so that you can kind of predict what your effects will be is Leafly. This site shows you the THC content, where it is on the scale of calming to energizing, and what effects most people have from particular strains.

Sunny Sativa

Sativas are known for motivating and getting you moving around versus vegging out on the couch. The leaves of a sativa are thin and spread apart. They have a higher level of THC and lower levels of CBD (the chemical that's believed to aid pain relief and anxiety). Creativity flourishes when smoking a sativa and treating depression is a major reason for its use among medical patients. Sativa strains are likely to get you talking, thinking, and philosophizing.

In Da Couch = Indica 

Indicas have a higher CBD content and are noted for their calming effects. The leaves are also wider and much closer together than a Sativa plant. When you are buying an Indica bud you want it to be dense—that’s how you will know just how much of an indica it really is. The more compact the bud, the more indica properties it has. Indicas are helpful with pain relief, insomnia, and eliminating anxiety. It has been known to produce a heavy and relaxing body high. This can be great for muscle tension in athletes or as a way to unwind after a long workday.

Via: Good Housekeeping

The perfect setting:

• People you feel comfortable with

• A space you can be yourself in

• A private area

• Snacks!

• Enjoy nature

• Stay calm

Ways to smoke: (popular choices) 

• Bowl

• Blunt

• One hitter

• Joint

• Bong

• Bubbler

• Vaporizer

• Pen

• Baked inside of baked goods

• Gummy form

• Dabbing

• Soda can

• Apple

• Gravity Bong

• Tinfoil

• Water Bottle

You might feel… 

• euphoric

• relaxed

• amused

• giggly

• creative

• hungry

• more sensitive to light, color, sound, touch, taste, and smell

Or the negatives (more likely when you have too much)

• anxiety

• confusion

• delusions and hallucinations

• high blood pressure

• nausea and vomiting

• panic

• paranoia

• psychosis

• racing heartbeat

How long does it last? 

Onset: Your initial reaction to the cannabis 

Peak: The climax of the high experience 

Anonymous Personal Experiences: 

Male 21 - Elon University (NC)

“So I was a freshman in college and was spending a Friday night drinking over at a buddy’s. I had been taught pretty much my entire life that weed was bad and a “gateway drug to heroin” and finally I just kinda said fuck it why not give it a shot once. For someone who usually wasn’t very relaxed, it definitely was a foreign feeling starting to get high. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed more in a night. Towards the end and walking home I did get slightly paranoid. It was something illegal and I was also afraid I was gonna get caught so that put me a little on edge.”

Male 20 - Elon University 

“I had a bowl to myself. By the end of it, it was the kinda experience where you thought you got out of bed, charged everything, got changed into pajamas. Two hours later you rollover and you realize your phone is in the jacket pocket I wore all day and not charging below my bunked bed. Also, music was FIRE. I heard so much in the instrumentals I’ve never heard before.”

Female 20 - Elon University 

“The first time I got high was with my two close friends in a safe environment. They were both experienced weed users. They gave me a tiny bite of a brownie edible and it didn’t hit right away, but once it did, I felt extremely relaxed. My anxiety was at ease.”

Male 18 - Miami University

“So my actual first time getting high was off a gummy ring edible at a pool party when I was a senior in high school. I only took half of it and was on the floor in the bathroom for like 20 min staring at my hand. I don’t really remember much because it was over a year ago but it was a really great experience. Probably because I only took half so it was pretty mild. But I started smoking regularly during the fall semester of my freshman year of college. My friends would go into the bathroom of our dorm suite and smoke out of a bong. That’s when I really started to enjoy it and started smoking just about every day.”

Male 21 - Ohio State University

‘‘I was with 3 friends and one of them had a pen so I decided to use it. I didn’t get too high though but I remember my eyes getting red. Also, my eyes were squinted but that’s just what happens when I get high. Overall didn’t get that high but it felt cool and now I smoke just about on the daily.’’

Female 19 - Skidmore College (NY)

 “My first time getting high was while I was hanging out with some friends my senior year of high school. It was two close friends, one who had a pen and smoked occasionally and one who would smoke and do edibles socially with some other friends. My friend with the pen offered it to me and I think we all smoked but not 100% sure. I remember it was super weird, I didn’t love it, I honestly felt sort of judged (which was probably paranoia), and it wasn’t super dramatic I was just super quiet the whole time. Honestly for a while after that, a lot of my experiences smoking were pretty similar where I didn’t love it and I just got super quiet and withdrawn but there was a turning point and now I genuinely do enjoy it as long as it’s in the right context.”

Female 19 - UNC-Chapel Hill (NC)

“Sophomore year of high school I took an edible with my ex-boyfriend at night in a gazebo over the lake in my neighborhood. I got pretty high after about an hour, yammered on about random shit for a while, got the munchies like a bitch, cried about not having pizza, went home, woke up high the next day, showed up to high school high, told my AP world history teacher no one wanted to do her homework, got in trouble, and came down around 7th period.”

Female 19 - University of Florida

“The first time I smoked I didn’t actually get high. The first time I did it was after an AP exam with a ton of my friends at one of their houses. There was a bowl being passed around and we were all listening to Fleetwood Mac on one of the girls' record players. I took a hit and the world started going into shutter mode, where what I was seeing was not matching up with what I was hearing. We made pasta and I had to chill at her place for a few hours extra because I was tweaking out but then I finally got driven home.”

Sources: 

https://www.healthline.com/health/what-does-it-feel-like-to-be-high#what-it-feels-like

https://www.complex.com/life/2018/11/weed-guide-everything-to-know-about-marijuana/sativas

https://twitter.com/mzstoned/status/1058170741890342916

Header Photo by Grav on Unsplash

Marijuana, Personal