Archie Davidson 1st Time Smoking Cannabis
In my second semester at Ohio ST as a Freshman my business group was given an assignment to where you are given an object that functions primarily one way and you have to find another use for it. Our product was a flashlight that only works during the day. I had the logical approach that you can use it to regulate your circadian rhythms given light regulates your sleep wake cycle. You could use the flashlight in the morning as an alarm clock of sort so that when the day begins the light shines, waking you up in a more natural way. The rest of my group came up to use it as a weapon. Fortunately for me I was a quiet side person in our group of 10, so the three or so extroverts were the ones that presented our findings to the class. They stated it could be used as a blunt force object as well as an inducer of seizure by flashing on and off quickly and repeatedly when focused strictly on the attacker's eyes.
Anyways, prior to me coming up with my idea about functional alteration of circadian rhythms I went to the library in the evening to get ahead in some of my classes. After I had done all of the basic class assignments I thought that maybe a walk would help me think of a potential use of the flashlight. Shortly after I left the library I came across a guy that was sitting on the bench with his dog and smoking a black and mild. At the time I was smoking myself, very little, like one black and mild a day. Anyways, going back to Archie. I introduced myself and asked if I could pet his dog he said sure, and so I did. Then I asked if I could join him on the bench and have a smoke, and he said "yeah, that's cool." Little did I know that meeting this one individual would completely alter the pathway in my life.
I believe on that bench we exchanged information because after we got to know each other I told him I was debating going on anti-depressants. I was Eighteen going on Nineteen and had never seen a psychologist or counselor so after meeting with a psych doctor at ST she suggested I start. This is something that I debated for quite some time and my acceptance of an alternative again changed my life completely.
One day, Archie called in the evening and asked "what are you doing tonight?" I replied "I'm going to the library to get a week ahead in my classes." He said something along the lines of I was putting too much effort into classes and not enough on relaxing, socializing, and enjoying the college experience and convinced me to hang out with him. I believe the night before on the bench Mike told me "I don't think you need to be on antidepressants, I honestly think starting to smoke weed would be your best bet." At the time I had never smoked weed or done any drugs at all other than those prescribed but I had already broken my standards by smoking black and mild's and the occasional cigar so I was open to altering engaging in that behavior.
After our phone call, I agreed with Archie and he picked me up from campus and we went to his apartment disregarding my studies. His roommate at the time was a really cool drug dealer from the middle east but he grew up in America. After a short introduction the dealer, let's call him, Sajid, Archie and him were trying to decide what to do tonight and the first thing they decided was for us to go to the gas station down the road and get beer.
Archie drove, Sajid in the passenger, and me in the back. We parked and the two of them went inside and got a couple six bottle packs and I think he got me a 40 oz or something just a large beer. I was still 18 so couldn't pick my choice, not that I had any idea what was what in the alcohol world either way. I offered Archi and Sajid money but they didn't take it, they were really good guys once you break down to their core character. Archie really though, I think he wanted to help me get through depression and saw some of himself in me. He was three years older.
After we got back to the apartment we went into Sajid's room and started drinking while he played some music on his sound system. After less than halfway down the bottle of beer, Sajid brought out some bud and put it in his grinder to load up a bong with. I had never smoked weed before and had no idea how a bong worked so on top of the bong, Sajid rolled a joint for us and went ahead and sparked it up. He passed it to Archie who took a hit, then he gave it to me. Being still inexperienced I asked him "Just hit it like a black and mild?" To which he responded "yeah, but hold it in," and so I did.
The joint went around the circle and out of consideration they let me hold it the longest, they had a bong as well for themselves they were loading but they wanted my first experience to be enjoyable. After a couple hits the combination Mike asked me what kind of music I listen to and I responded Asking Alexandria to which Sajid played it and was said "That shit is too angry," and put on some rap. I still had the rock preference going into college and not living the college experience which is 90% rap. After a song or two Mike checked on me and I told him I didn't really feel any different and he made the suggestion "we should go outside, it's cool to see all the details." So he guided me to their door that led outside and we took a couple of steps. I was pretty messed up from the combo of beer and bud the thing I noticed first was I had super rapid reaction and perception of my surroundings. Mike and I smoked a Black and mild he offered to me, I hadn't yet really bought regular packs for myself.
After we finished smoking we went back inside, and that's when the combo hit me. I became very nauseous and asked where the bathroom was and me being polite checked with them first if it was ok if I threw up in their toilet. They told me "Yeah man, go ahead, just watch the splash." So I went into the bathroom and threw up pretty much all the beer and then went back into their bedroom. At this point there was another guy that showed up to hang out, lets call him Randy, again Sajid was a dealer of bud so he was a customer not just a friend.
We all three got back in the room Randy said "Hey Sajid, let me get a G." At this point I had no idea of how quantities of Marijuana were measured of course later I asked Charlie and he was like yeah it was a gram probably high quality being $20 which is what Randy said. Sajid then got his grounder out again and loaded the bong. I didn't hit it this time but the other three did. After they finished I asked Randy, "So what's your story?" He replied "my freshman year I drank half a gallon of alcoholic punch the night before finals and failed out." It was unfortunate, but what can you do?
After they smoked again, they were talking about getting pizza from a popular small establishment in Oakridge, but I was still fairly sick so asked Mike to just drive me home, which he did. Once we got back to the drop-off circle before I existed he said "Hey man, just don't take things so seriously." He was generally a good guy that was trying to help as best as he knew how.
Years later I would contact him asking for advice about various issues which he always responded with a plethora of helpful books, and outlets. Archie was a good guy.