Welcome to the Hot Box

My First Hit

My first experience with weed was in 12th grade. I was with my on-again off-again friend, G. He was really into research chemicals, Alex Shulgin, and the darknet. (More on that later) He drove us over to Angel’s house, which was only about a ten minute drive from our school. (We HEAVILY took advantage of being able to leave campus.) Since I didn’t know Angel, I stood around while he rolled up a joint while his arm was in a sling. We all then got into Gabe’s car and sparked the joint while driving back to campus. My first thought when they started smoking was, ‘Wow, my dad wasn’t smoking cigarettes at all’. For years, the white pencil thin tobacco I thought my father was smoking, was in fact, weed!

They passed it to me and said, “Inhale”. I had NO clue what that meant, so I put the joint to my lips, pulled, and blew it out. Totally wasting the hit aside from residual green taste in my mouth, nothing was different. I believe I continued in the rotation for one or two more times. I never felt anything, and I let them know. G said it in a way I would never forget, “Smoking for the first time will be like installing drivers in your brain. You installed the drivers this time, so next time you will definitely get high.” We both were in extra vocational courses, specifically computer hardware and software. Both huge geeks, he managed to teach me about the dark net. I scored 3 ounces all the way from Humboldt doing that shit!

More Than Just Weed

He did way more than just weed though. He also introduced me to the world of psychedelics and research chemicals. Funny enough, I had done research chemicals well before my first hit of weed. My first research chemical was 25i-NBOMe, and I cannot believe I am well (enough) and alive today considering how dangerous of a game I was playing eyeball dosing micrograms. Me and my friends would all group up at J’s house, which was a half-renovated DIY project with a bonus shed for more degenerate activities.

I am forever grateful G taught and practiced harm-reduction. Mainly, it was through research on Erowid, learning proper dosages, testing product, and bluelight.org. Even though the drugs I chose to consume always had low overdose risk, not me or any other of my friends that consumed drugs ever overdosed.

PlayStation 2 Graphics

After managing to convince my parents to let G drive me to his place, a few mutual friends showed up. I can remember him rolling up two joints, and when I took a hit, I actually inhaled. I still didn’t feel anything, yet. Then, as I’m looking outside while the rest of my buddies are jumping on a trampoline, it hits me. I lost all focus, where things turn into “PS2 graphics” when you disc skip and trip out. I got extremely cold and went to lay on the couch for a good amount of time. My memory of this one escapes me, and I wish I had more to add to this one.

Trips to the Plug

Benny

With G and I being broke ass highschoolers, re-up day really only consisted of us scrounging together $20 for a gram. We got a 15-minute break between our vocational classes, so we always chose to ditch for a quick smoke. In hindsight, the dealer obviously could tell our ages and being an adult today, I could never imagine selling weed to anyone under 18. Anyways, it was always mid-grade weed, but it got the job done.

Benny was a scary fucking dealer to me. He never said anything, and this is the only dealer I have ever bought from that would make you drive slow down a random dirt road before you had to do the hand-off, and you better hope your ass could grab the bag while handing off the money driving 5mph. Needless to say, I never bought from Benny alone.

I later found out Benny sold more than just weed, he sold Oxy as well. G got addicted to opiates after that.

Yoshi

Another high school dealer was ‘Yoshi’. He seemed to come through a lot for my friend H, but I would message him, and then ask again 5 hours later, to get a response 2 hours later saying, “Dry”. Thanks, dude.

K & J

Now, this is a wild one. I managed to score not ONE, but TWO dealers living in the same house! Here’s how it worked: J handled the females, and K handled the males. I thought that was a really good way of business. They were just trailer trash parents trying to keep the money flowing. I had a couple good conversations with their teenage boys about sports and their grades in school. I dealt with K when J was busy, but he was always a nice enough dude. What are the odds my drug dealer had the matching 5-speed to a Nissan 240SX half rotting in the dirt? My ex paid him $150 for that transmission.

For a small amount of time, K and J were having disagreements with each other regarding J’s faithfulness. K kicked her out one day, and I, yet again, had to go to some random-ass 55+ community. She had quickly moved into a bedroom with her very aged mother. While pushing weed out this condo, she told me how she went gay in prison. It’s not very important, but it stuck with me all this time because of how much it felt like we were just teenage friends giggling about gossip. Super strange.

E

The first ‘real’ dealer I had. You know, the walking past the housing projects with everyone hanging around outside, all eyes on the white girl walking past. I never felt intimidated or anything, because I am also white trash ;)

I used him for years. I only slowed down on him because I moved a little too far to continue risk (felony while driving = yikes). I won a “contest” he held with some math regarding square footage, and I was his only customer to guess right! I got one moonrock for my troubles.

I also had to be his support when his baby’s mama came at him for who knows what and drove around the town with that dude while he aired his grievances out to probably his only female customer. I still feel awkward thinking about that, it was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him.