October 2, 2023

Stone Cold Sober

After 36 years of nearly daily use, I’ve gone cold turkey.

This effort started back in July of 2023, and, I gotta admit: the first six or seven days were pretty difficult. I was taking a lot of showers, and I dropped a few pounds because I just had no appetite.

Now that I’m more than sixty days sober, I really don’t miss the high. I’ve realized that some of the studies that show Cannabis can exacerbate anxiety actually do ring true, at least for me. It was my panacea, my crutch. When I was high, I always felt like there was a little cartoon character in my pocket, someone with whom I could share the humor. Someone who gets the joke.

When I leave the house, I used to make sure I had my wallet, my weed, my wits as well as, of course, my keys and phone. I had a little song to sing to help me remember all those things. I haven’t needed to sing that song lately, and I don’t mind.

Cannabis Curious

Side Effect: Apathy

Just a Run of the Mill Pot Smoker

About the author

Sista Smoke

Smoking weed is SistaSmoke's most well-developed hobby. Used to be, she would drive down the 280 freeway while grinding, packing and smoking a bowl - or roll her own from start to finish at 80mph. She’ll be the first to tell you, it's all in the knees. Sistasmoke is kind and generous with her weed but at the same time: discreet. You would only know she smokes if someone you had already smoked with had invited you to the party. Back in the day, SistaSmoke was shacked up with a dope grower, and medicinal weed had not yet been legalized, so she's used to being in the closet. SistaSmoke has a shrink who is encouraging her to feel less shame about her weed habit, because it is an important daily ritual and, well, she is in good company. After all, it's legal - to some degree either medically or recreationally, in all but South Dakota and Idaho. Many states are moving toward decriminalization, as well. Morning, noon and night, SistaSmoke is typically partaking. Before leaving the house, before getting in the shower, while waiting for the ferry, in preparation for a zoom call. SistaSmoke feels better when she is always toking, smoking, joking, higher spirits, invoking. Sistasmoke had a conversation with a coffee barista at the farmer's market a while back. Barista said that he'd been on a jury that dismissed the charges against a chronic weed smokin’ driver who'd been up for DUI. The jury felt that he'd proven his consumption habit was such that if his driving was erratic that day, it certainly wasn't because of his weed habit - er, that the weed did not adversely affect his driving. How To prove that one, Sistasmoke wondered aloud. Barista wasn't clear in his answer, or SistaSmoke couldn't retain it cause her short term memory is super short. SistaSmoke is working on changing the narrative of being an addict to staying open minded, staying in learning mode. Weed is a big enabler for SistaSmoke in that way, as in, oops! That was fun, oops, let's try again. Oops, this is gonna take practice, oops let's do it again. Laugh it off, don’t take it so seriously. Seriously. Lighten up. SistaSmoke wishes there weren’t such a stigma surrounding weed usage. Que the bong hits, Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure, Wayne’s world, half-baked, you name the Cheech and Chong mainstream reference. SistaSmoke is about to be fifty, years of age, that is. She is starting the second half of her life way too early but with a fire lit under her to make space in her brain for the new stuff by writing down all these other stories! Clear the way, empty it, dump it - get it on paper, or out in the ether, as it were. SistaSmoke likes talking about herself in the third person. SistaSmoke is tryna hone a voice, develop a style and a point of view, hence; this blog. Follow along and pipe in if you wanna. Lurk if that’s more your style, SistaSmoke doesn’t judge. Or, she tries not to at least. She’ll be the first to confess her shortcomings, so you don’t point them out. SistaSmoke collaborates with her brother, the multimedia-producer and holder of a Master of Arts in Interactive Journalism. He edits, inspires, promotes, maintains, and was the establisher of this blog to begin with. SistaSmoke is forever grateful for the tight bond between herself and her baby bro. SistaSmoke also writes another blog, (link) another another moniker. (link)