DOSE:	repeated	smoked	Cannabis	(daily)
	repeated	smoked	Tobacco - Cigarettes

BODY WEIGHT:

130 lb

My High School Experience With Drugs

Growing up, casual drug use was something that surrounded me. I am the third youngest of 8 kids, and my older brothers and sisters (especially two of my brothers and oldest sister) were potheads. I was exposed to weed all of my life and began smoking weed at the young age of 9. I didn't expect weed to play the big role in my life that it does now.

It wasn't until my grade eight year, when it began to be a daily thing. Smoking weed 2 or 3 times a day in the morning, at school and when I got home. I had always done well in school, and this continued on until grade 9, when I received an award for top academics.

In the summer between grade 9 and 10, I tried mushrooms and MDMA for the first time. This was the year my parents got a divorce, which was a lot better for me. My father and I had a horrible relationship for my entire life, but we began to rarely speak. I began smoking too. It was never something that appealed to me, and I never saw myself as a full on smoker. I began smoking thinking it would only be something I'd do while high. But as much as people look down upon smoking, it definitely helped me with my social anxiety.

My grade 10 year was a blur. Being surrounded by a lot more people everyday was hard for me. It was a lot easier to find drugs, and easier to find money for them too. I would smoke weed up to 5 times a day. Coming to a lot of my classes high. I wasn't excelling in school like I was used to. I was in advanced classes and was failing miserably. I finished math with a 30. This was the first time my parents seemed to take any notice of my drug use.

One night my parents called the police on a party. It was sort of a rave, and there was a lot of drug use. Lots of people got arrested for drug possession, including a friend of mine for having a gram of weed. This was the first time I looked at drug use as a political matter.

In grade 11, people started looking at what classes they should take to get into programs that interested them. I was completely lost when it came to what I wanted to do in the future. While talking to my therapist (I grew up with a therapist because of my mental health issues) and discussing what my future could look like, I mentioned how I'd like to change the current laws surrounding drug use.

When I was younger I had always thought that things were the way they are and there isn't much you could do about it. I realized then that I could do something with my future surrounding the use of Cannabis. This thought spearheaded a large part of my future. I found something I was passionate about and was willing to work towards.

Here I am, just graduating high school with marks that could be better, but I am actually pretty comfortable with them. I am excited for my future. I will be a anthropology major, and I have my past experience to thank for that.

If I was to do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything because if it wasn't for my mistakes, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Thank you Cannabis!

Exp Year: 2012	ExpID: 100803
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 18
Published: Jun 24, 2021	Views: 612
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Cannabis (1) : Various (28), Retrospective / Summary (11)