Thoughts from the void: January 2019

Monday 14 January 2019

Personal Ganja Consumption Review 2018

Continuing the review of personal annual ganja consumption which I have undertaken for the year 2017, here is the review for 2018.

2018 in terms of ganja consumption for me has been one of the lowest in recent times, possibly the lowest in the last 12 years. In the context of rising global legalization and consumption, my personal case has been ironically the opposite.

I had access to about 30 grams of bud and leaf around early January 2018. This was good quality, organic herb harvested at the beginning of the year which is the best time for the plant in south India. It was a variety grown locally possibly in Karnataka and had great aroma and flavor. I relished it but rationed it to try and prolong the experience. It lasted for about 40 days till about mid February. I smoke approx 2-3 joints of 1/3rd the normal potency a day, which may have amounted to roughly 3/4th of a gram per day. I smoked the ganja mixed with some imported loose tobacco which some good friends had been kind enough to share with me. The joints were roughly in the proportion of 1/3rd ganja and 2/3rd tobacco rolled into a spliff using some slow burning cigarette paper which is my preferred mode of consumption. The smoking experience was great and I loved the natural high and sense of well being that the smokes gave me.

The next time I got access to some ganja was in the end of March after nearly a month and a half of not consuming the herb. This time it was in the form of some nice hash resin. I got approx 10g of the resin which seemed to be of sufficiently good quality to make me think that it must be from the Himachal region. This also I rationed and smoked for approximately 40 days in the same fashion, ratio and frequency as I had the buds and leaves earlier i.e. 2-3 joints a day of 1/3rd the normal potency of a single joint. The hash was of good enough plasticity to mix with the tobacco and smoke. It was also of sufficiently good quality that a small amount of resin roughly the size of the head of a match stick rolled with tobacco gave a sublime experience so that I was able to stretch my supply for approx. 40 days till the first week of May.

Going by the above two experiences, if I thought that 2018 was going to be a good year, I was quite disappointed because for pretty much the rest of the year I had no further access to the herb. On a couple of occasions towards the end of the year some noble friends did share a smoke with me but there was not enough to stock up or keep aside, just enough for the get together.

The situation still continues into 2019 so I have been without access to ganja for roughly 8 months now. When I ran out of the herb, I started rolling a cigarette with the loose tobacco and smoking approximately a cigarette a day for the subsequent 8 months. When I ran out of the loose tobacco, I bought the occasional bundle of beedis or, on a couple of rare occasions, a packet of cigarettes keeping the consumption to roughly a cigarette a day or a couple of beedis a day.

Alcohol consumption through the year has been similar to previous years. I have confined myself to mainly social drinking and kept the frequency of alcohol consumption to approx 2-3 drinks once a fortnight.

What I hear from people I talk to, and material I read, is that the consumption of ganja is at an all time high both in the city I live in as well as more or less everywhere else. Yet people I talk to repeatedly speak about the difficulty of accessing the herb, low quality of herb, the high levels of police crackdown on cultivators and dealers as well as the increasing cost of the herb. This seems to indicate the formation of well organized illegal groups of larger operators that possibly crowd out the smaller producers and sellers. Also the buyers who have established steady long term relationships are likely to have more regular access as it must be in the case of middle age and older adult buyers. The youth are still able to network and source from sellers that operate for short periods of time before moving on or running into law enforcement.

So, in summary, 2018 was a year that reinforced my convictions that ganja needs to be legalized and made more accessible, especially for middle age and older adults in Bengaluru. It also appears that in 2018 the illegal networks are ramping up their operations in anticipation of the inevitable legalization, making a quick buck and in the process building the necessary knowledge, supply, distribution and consumption networks that will surely stand in good stead when legalization becomes a reality in Bengaluru.

For me though, for the time being, it is watch, wait and speak mode.

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Retrospective Lifetime Study of Personal Drug Usage

At the age of forty four, looking back at my life, I decided to assess my behavior till date in terms of drug usage. In terms of drugs, it has been tobacco, alcohol and ganja. There was only one instance when I recall consuming psychedelic mushrooms but this I am not even sure about.

The signs that I would be a smoker were evident from a young age. Around the age of 7 or 8, I would roll paper and fill it with talcum powder and pretend to be puffing on a cigarette. The earliest consumption of tobacco was possibly when I was around ten years old. Around this time I would pick up cigarette butts tossed on the road by passersby and try and take a couple of drags. Between the age of ten and seventeen I have consumed tobacco as cigarettes, approximately a dozen times, mostly between the age of 10 and 14. I avoided tobacco quite strictly since then till I was 18. After the age of eighteen consumption of tobacco was minimal till the age of thirty five.It was the rare cigarette when having a drink with friends. From the age of thirty five till date there has been a marked increase in tobacco consumption in the form of ready made or rolled cigarettes, beedis and occasional cigars. I am currently averaging at less than a total of 100 cigarettes and 400 beedies a year. Tobacco is looking like its consumption will continue at similar levels for the foreseeable future and it is one drug whose intake I don't want to increase much further but which may increase due to the difficulty of accessing ganja.

Alcohol consumption started at the age of seventeen, with the occasional beer, and moved to hard liquor within the next couple of years. Since then, till date, alcohol consumption possibly peaked between the age of twenty five and thirty five after which it has dipped. At peak consumption time, alcohol was consumed at a maximum of about three days a week. Since the age of thirty five there has been a marked dip with alcohol being consumed around a couple of dozen times a year in relatively large quantities bordering on binge drinking (180+ml of hard liquor or 2500ml+ of beer) and possibly a couple of dozen times in small quantities (60-120ml of hard liquor or 500-1000ml beer). During peak consumption periods, there were numerous times when I consumed alcohol alone but since then it is mostly social drinking in the company of friends. Alcohol consumption in the foreseeable future looks like continuing along recent patterns with the possible increase in frequency of drinking small quantities and a reduction in the frequency of binge drinking and social drinking.

Ganja consumption started around the age of seventeen and has possibly peaked in the last ten years. From the age of seventeen till thirty five, smoking ganja has been on an average about 30 joint days (a joint a day) in a year. At peak periods i.e. in the last ten years it has possibly more than doubled to about about 75 joint days in a year. The desirable consumption for ganja is at least 200 joint days for the foreseeable future. This is currently severely constrained by the non-availability of the herb.

No other drugs in the form of opiates, prescription drugs, synthetic cannabinoids and other chemical drugs have been consumed by me for recreational or medical purposes, nor is there a desire to consume the same in the future. I have avoided prescription drugs, even for common illnesses, since I was 18, believing that the body left to itself and given adequate time and rest can heal itself and build up the necessary immunity.

Looking at the above aspects of behavior, I believe that the peaking in these behaviors and their subsequent stabilization is in line with normal biological and social changes from youth to early adulthood to mature adulthood. The consumption of alcohol, tobacco or ganja have not adversely affected the normal course of biological development in me. The restricted access to ganja does continue to result in its substitution with alcohol and tobacco on occasions. More easy availability of ganja will enable me to increase its proportions and reduce the proportions of the other two, more harmful drugs i.e. alcohol and tobacco, in my mix of recreational intake but when, and if, this does happen remains to be seen. In terms of withdrawal, I have observed it to be greatest in terms of tobacco i.e. nicotine, with it being negligible in my case with regard to alcohol and ganja.

Overall the past, current and projected use of all three drugs is something I am satisfied with and is not a matter of great concern for me.

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