Have you ever heard(or used) this excuse?

Whenever the topic comes up, if asked, I inform the asker that I am allergic. Which is actually the truth. I don’t do it with any sort of weird moral superiority, though. I’m not sure violent head pain, projectile vomiting and the possibility of anaphylactic shock are necessarily things to be proud of, yanno?

It’s a serious pain in my ass, actually. I’ve long since lost track of the number of gatherings I’ve had to leave because someone whipped out the pot - or because the guy sitting over there reeked of pot in sufficient concentration he was triggering nausea and headache (which are my allergy-reaction signals to run and run fast to somewhere far, far away). I don’t even try to go to indoor concerts anymore.

I will say that any number of total assholes have attempted to explain to me that it’s not possible for me to be allergic to pot. Those people can insert their “medical opinion” into the nether orifice of their choice. Because the battery of allergen testing I underwent when they finally figured out that I had an life-threateningly bad reaction to certain common OTC drugs* was somehow faulty - as are my subjective experiences of exposure to pot followed immediately by a classic allergic reaction pattern physiologic response. My doctors actually went out of their way to include illegal drugs in the allergy screening because they weren’t stupid and realized that most kids at least give it a whirl. They wanted to know (and wanted me to know as well since I was about 12 then) if experimentation on my part was at all likely to trigger my reaction. The answer was “yes”, which dramatically cut down on my urge to experiment with drugs, let me tell you. Not to mention that they made it a point to inform me that one of the more common substances used to cut drugs is aspirin - which is the drug that gives me the most severe reaction.

*Did you know it’s possible to have life-threatening allergic reaction to aspirin? Neither did my childhood doctors. Between them and my mother, all with the best intentions, those guys damn near killed me dozens of times before I hit an age where I could make them understand that it was the drugs that were converting minor illnesses into Life-Threatening Emergencies.

Am I missing something? Isnt mary-jane a depressant and typical reaction is that it makes you chill/relax?

It makes me goofy as hell & I cant stop laughing. Speed makes me drowsy - my mind’s awake but I dont want to move. iI envied my friends who bounced around in circles while I was the one pert near passed out on the couch.

The first time I tried it, I felt absolutely nothing at all. Except for the desire to cough.

The second time, however, was a different story. And the third, fourth…

The first few times i tried weed it didn’t have any effect on me, then i realized i wasn’t inhaling it as deep as i should. The “tried it once and it had no effect” crowd was probably simply doing it wrong.

(raises hand) Me!! First time…really, really high. I’m one of those people who actually seeks out shitty pot because I get too high nearly every time I smoke. Which is why I don’t smoke much at all. When I do, it’s one or two hits, tops. I actually find the high to be near-incapacitating. I like the buzz but I hate the stupor. Some folks said it was because I was pretty small back in the day. I have since proved that to be a false assumption.

It depends on the quality of the herb. If all it did was make you sleepy, then it wasn’t very good stuff. Too bad for you!

Well, I’ve said it - truthfully - about qaaludes. :cool:

I’ve said it about barbiturates.

I had to quit smoking pot because it started being a massive anxiety trip every time. Fortunately a few years off resolved that. More or less (being married, with two kids, a huge mortgage, and an IT carreer means every waking moment of my life is a massive anxiety trip).

I’ve said something a bit like that in the past. Cannabis doesn’t make me sleepy, it makes me feel really horrible. I tried it time and time again to try to fit in with a bunch of hippy folks who were very much into it, but it just never worked for me - I would always return home feeling wretched.

Not usually sleepy though - it would often make me completely unable to sleep and I would lie there staring at the ceiling all night, with an uncomfortably dry mouth, and generally not feeling nice.

I don’t think I use this as a moral trout to slap people about the head. I hardly mention it nowadays anyway, unless asked. I say it because it’s what happened.

Yes, I have heard it before and I even tried to use it once. When my then-teen-age daughter asked me if I’d ever tried it. I got about two words out with a straight face (I’m a child of the sixties, remember) and then just completely lost it. I laughed so hard I was simultaneously choking and laughing so hard I was crying. Snot was coming out of my nose.

When I got to the point I could breathe and speak, I just said with an absolutely straight face, “No, never tried it” and walked away.

Sorry, kid.

Pot always made me… well, rather physically wound up and perhaps a tad over-affectionate. Um. You could say. (Ahem.)

I did twig to the possibility of ADD, though, when I tried speed for the first time and dozed off during my sixth hour history class.

My best friend is that kind of allergic to pot (She is allergic to hemp, too. Shampoo that turned out to have hemp in it gave her horrible hives, and will get a rash touching hemp rope or fabric). She’s had many people tell her it’s not possible, or refuse to believe her. When I was in college my roommate decided that my best friend was making it up, and ignored my request she not smoke when my friend was over. She lit a joint in the livingroom and we ended up having to crawl out my bedroom window.

In my 20s and 30s, if I smoked marijuana with friends, it got me high—I had a hell of a lot of fun while stoned. If I smoked it by myself, it didn’t do much of anything. Hash, on the other hand, put me to sleep almost instantly.

The last time I smoked dope was on my 50th birthday. It didn’t do anything at all for me but my fellow celebrants certainly seemed to be high. Maybe I was just bummed at turning 50.

I’ve said that, but not used it as an excuse. I did a little more than “try” marijuana, but never got into it, and it does make me sleepy.

Sometimes it just doesn’t, like others have said, it can just makes me sleepy. Other times, I’ve felt a pleasant feeling, YMMV.

How is this an excuse for anything?

I’m guessing it’s in the spoken intonation of ‘it didn’t do anything for me’ - a tone of superiority and sophistication, perhaps.

But yeah, excuse isn’t really the right word, I think.

Not to be snarky at all, but did you warn anyone who might be subject to random drug screens about your creative flavoring?

So when I say I’ve tried marijuana a few times and never got anything out of it, you interpret that as my being superior and snotty? Hey, if I’d gotten anything out of it, I’d have kept doing it.