Why is the first marijuana experience no fun?

Factual Questions
1

Did a search on this, with no luck… but I wasn’t sure how to address the topic in the SE, so forgive me if it has been discussed before… on to the Q:

The vast majority of people who try smoking pot feel nothing on their first try! On the second attempt, or sometimes the third attempt, they become intoxicated… why?

Does the first try change the brain somehow to be more receptive to the THC the next time they try it, or what?

For me, it took 3 attempts before I was flat on my back, giggling my ass off (years ago, when I was foolish and thought nothing of taking such a horrifically dangerous drug :rolleyes: ).

2

On the contrary, the first experience is the most intense. It’s so intense, in fact, that the user generally loses all memory of the effects of the drug, and thinking back on it the next day, or later in life, one presumes that it simply had little or no effect. Therefore, they conclude, the drug must be safe, and they try it again.

Sometimes, the drug has not yet built up sufficient amounts of madness-inducing chemicals in the brain by even the second use, and once again, the effects are so strong that the user doesn’t remember the intoxicating effects.

Usually by the third time, the now-hopelessly-hooked junkie has destroyed enough brain cells for the effect to be mild enough to be remembered.

3

Sociologist Howard Becker theorized in 1953 that one has to learn both how to smoke pot and that such an experience is enjoyable.

A google search yields several hits that should provide more information on Becker’s essay Becoming a Marijuana User.

4

I was told the THC " crystallizes " in the brain and then reactivates when you smoke again, so you’d have to have built up a certain amount before you’d get off. I was told this on no good authority mind you, probably by someone with droopy eyelids who was talking realllllyyy slowwww…

5

I always thought it was one or both of the following:

  1. 1st-timers don’t inhale right or hold in the smoke long enough (maybe doesn’t apply to cigarette smokers)
  2. the effects of the drug can be very subtle–so much so that if you don’t know how you’re supposed to feel, you may not really feel anything.
    The first time I got high I had to smoke about 10 bong hits before I felt anything, and at that point it hit me like a ton of bricks. I got lost walking home that night.
6

That’s what the answers have been so far :slight_smile:
The official reason, given by those “doctors” and other “health care professionals”, is that pot, unusually among drugs, has a decreasing tolerance - the amount of THC needed to cause an effect actually goes down as your body becomes accustomed to the drug. I assume that at some point there is a plateau, otherwise certain friends of mine would get high just looking at the stuff. Most drugs, such as alcohol, have increasing tolerance - ya need more to feel good.

The real reason of course, is simpler - the great god Mary Jane does not suffer daytrippers and dilletants {sp?}. To get her blessing, you must work at it. So keep lighting those bongs, kids!!

Sua

7

Goodness, AxeElf! That gave me a chuckle. Where do you get your fanciful theories?

8

The “official” reason I always heard was that THC is fat soluble - you have to saturate your fatty tissue before it does anything. With repeated use, you keep your fat saturated, so you get the full effect. Also the reason you can test positive for so long after use.

9

As a side note, once you have plenty of THC accumulated in your fat cells, you get a decent buzz when you exercise; the fat burn away, re-releasing the THC into the blood stream.

10

…so anyway, there we were, sitting in the basement, that’s Joe’s basement, not Dan’s basement, you know, Joe, the guy that used to ride the motorcycle, and anyway, I’d never smoked pot before and Joe says to me, he says, “Hey, like you wanna get high?”, so I naturally say, “sure,” even thought I’ve never smoked pot before in my, hey could you pass those pretzels over here, thanks, hey, got anything cold to drink, something cold to drink would really be good about right now, so, where was I? Oh yeah, the car starts making this really funny noise, no, wait a minute that wasn’t it. Oh, right. Anyway, Joe and I are sitting in his basement and he passes me this bong, I don’t know, I guess a 21" TokeMaster, it didn’t have a shotgun on it, anyway, so, I’m like trying to figure this thing out and inhaling and inhaling and inhaling and there isn’t anything happening, say did you get that tape from that dude yet, you know the one with all of Jerry’s fuck ups sychned together? That guy said he was going to send you the tape like, what, 3 months ago or some shit? Some people. Well, anyway, so I’m trying to hit this, hey bud, what happened to that cold beer you were getting me? Yeah, right. So, well, no we ran into a ditch, or over a post man or something, I don’t know. There wasn’t any blood on the fender or anything, and I didn’t hear anybody scream, so it must have been OK, right? Man, you mande me forget, Oh, yeah, well, right, no I think I just singed it with a lighter. Yeah, the smell was pretty terrible, what with the hair burning and all but it’ll grow back and the scar won’t be quite so noticeable. Hey, thanks for the beer, man. So, anyway, what was the question again?

11

My erm… friend… Tom… he got high the first time he smoked. Then one night he had 10 hits off a joint of schwag, and about 6 double hits off a waterbong… He forgot how to talk or move or anything and just sat and stared for about 6 hours, thinking about 80s cartoons (and fantasizing about the best meatball sandwich… EVER)… the next day as he was walking to class (1/2 mile) he got WAAY buzzed from metabolizing the THC in his fat.

–Tim

12

I think I would sort of agree with retsin.

my first time was great, but then I know people who say they didn’t get high or as-high their first time as they did later on. The only difference I can think of is that I smoked cigaretes prior to smokinf pot so I didn’t have a problem inhaling so much as someone with pink lungs.

13

:stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:
Is this the funniest thing posted today, or am I just stoned?

14

seconded, pk! Tho that doesn’t mean that you’re not stoned!!

15

THC eventually works its way out of your body. It seems to me that the explanation above would imply that after the THC was gone from the fatty tissues, you wouldn’t get high smoking after a prolonged absence.

This was not my experience - I quit the weed for 4 years at one point, and the first time I smoked again (with a guy who’s now an RCMP officer, btw) I got as high as a kite.
Compare this with the very first time I smoked. I felt virtually nothing.

I really don’t know what the answer is to the OP, but I like AxeElf’s theory the best.

16

I have to say, my first time I coughed so much that I got absolutely nothing in my lungs, but soon enough I was able to take it and really enjoyed myself. However I’ve noticed that more recently I’ve been getting less fun and more mellow and moody. I’m not sure if this is due to a change in my tolerance for it, or if somewhere up the dealership chain there’s been a bit of a change in supplier.

I also have to give some credence to the idea that a first-timer doesn’t really know what they’re feeling. You kind of have to become conditioned to the equation “smoking dope = certain effects”, to attribute it to the dope. I recently started up again after having quit for about 18 months, easily long enough for it to get out of my brain and body, and I felt it straight away cause I knew what to look for.

Anyway, recently I had some friends from America out here on a study abroad thingy, and they left to go home the other day. In the week or so before leaving, we must have smoked 3 or 4 plants between us (exageration, but you get the idea) to send them off. They’ve gone now, and I’ve decided to get fit during the summer break. I went for a bike ride yesterday afternoon, and after a few kilometres I was flying. I had no idea what was causing it, but now I think I get the idea…

17

I like AxeElf’s theory, too… but I don’t buy it! I remember very well what happened on the first two times I tried the holy weed; no memory lapse whatsoever!

There’s gotta be a reason for this!

As for the theory that you have to “learn” how to be high… I’m not too sure about that, either! What about the physiological effects? Do people who smoke for the first time, even thought they feel nothing, still get red eyes?? (I don’t know the answer for that, but it is a good question, too! It’s my post, and I’ll hijack it if I want to!) :smiley:

So far, the best theory I’ve heard is that those who don’t smoke cigarettes don’t know how to keep any smoke down long enough to absorb enough THC… I had never smoked a cigarette before I tried pot!

18

Well, I first smoked pot when I was 15. I don’t know if I had a particularly potent sample (it was my friend’s drug-dealer brother who gave it to me), or if it was because I’d never done it before… but the first time I ever smoked pot was probably the most intense pot-smoking experience i’d had.

It wasn’t pleasurable… i was just completely out of it, and a little paranoid to boot. It wasn’t really fun at the time… altho it became fun later on :slight_smile:

For me, my first pot experience was kind of alarming and nerve-wracking… the loss of total control of my mind caused a bit of panic. but i overcame it :slight_smile:

19

Becker doesn’t say you have to learn to be high. He says you have to learn to like being high.

20

Sorry, retsin2000, you are correct!

But that is side-stepping the issue… even if you haven’t learned to like being high, you’d still feel something!

My first and second time, I felt NOTHING!!! The third time it kicked my ass!!!

Back to the original question: why?