Untold stories with Aunty Mary Jane

Illustration by Amy Czachowski

If an individual smokes weed, the ways the plant affect the person can vary greatly. Some individuals may experience a good high and enjoy their time being dazed while others may not have the same happy affect. There are more and more movies and television shows that either show scenes of a crazy night of being high or make use of it for comedy, but the question of these depictions being true to real life still stands.

Some individuals consider their craziest time with grass being their first time using the drug. Senior Jarvin Singer remembers his first experience with Mary Jane and how it was sort of a roller coaster ride from start to finish. It all happened after smoking a joint in a car ride his freshman year with three of his friends.

The group was heading back home in a Mini Cooper when it came time to get out of the car to go back to the dorms. There, Singer felt like he was paralyzed. He said he was stuck in his mind and he could not get out of the car. This led to his friend picking Singer up and helping him walk to the door.

“I don’t remember the walk back to the rooms, but [my friends] said it was the first time I saw snow,” Singer said. “I started to do snow angels and stuff.”

After having some fun in the snow, they reached the stairwell to get to the third floor. While making the journey up to the dorm room, he encountered other individuals along the way.

“We were going up the stairs and there was this couple that was coming down,” Singer said. “I said ‘Oh god, they can’t know I am high. Act normal.’ When they were coming down the stairs, I put up my hand to say hi and hit the girl’s boob on accident.”

Singer’s friend came to the rescue and explained the situation to the couple. After telling the couple that this was Singer’s first time being high, the couple understood and went their separate ways.

Singer had a difficult time getting into his room because he couldn’t fit his key into the door, but he and his friends made it to their dorms safely. Having a feeling of dry mouth from the whole ordeal, Singer wanted to get some water. He told his friends where he was going and went to the nearest drinking fountain. While on his walk, he developed shutter vision. He described shutter vision as the world like pictures on a Post-it note that flips through rapidly.

“I went to go get some water and because of my shutter vision, it looked like it was coming out way faster then it was, so I started to drown in the fountain and my friend had to come and pull me out,” Singer said.

For the rest of the night, Singer crashed on his friend’s floor for two hours and then in his own bed for 14 more hours to sleep off what was left.

Sophomore Brook Vaujin described a time that involved her 26-year-old brother Travis Vaujin. When he was in high school, Travis attended a party with a group of his friends where the drug was present.

“I think it was his first time,” Vaujin said. “That is probably why he freaked out and maybe [the weed] was laced with something.”

Vaujin said she does not know how much her brother smoked, but it did leave her a lasting impression of the drug. After he started smoking, something did not feel right to him.

“He started to hear voices,” Vaujin said. “He thought the devil started talking to him. He was so terrified and I guess the people in his apartment building were smoking weed, so he had to leave because the smell brought back the memories from that night.”

Senior Theodore Beamer may have not heard voices in his head, but he could have found himself arrested. Beamer has a lung condition, which prevented him from smoking with his friends but still decided to go along for the adventure. The plan was that he and a few of his friends were going to go to Slide Rock in Sedona to have a good time.

“They brought their gear with them and its all inside this backpack,” Beamer said. “During this time, it was the glass checks, so I had a backpack full of illicit material at the time.”

As they were hiking, the group got a glimpse of a park ranger stopping everybody that walked by and asking them to empty out their bags. During the process of glass checking, a person is asked to dump out everything in their bag so the ranger can see if they are carrying any glass due to the increased problem of broken glass at Slide Rock.

“Literally, it was this carnival of changing bags around, trying to hide the [glass],” Beamer said. “The one bag had so much gear that I was afraid it could get lost in the mix and sure enough, it did. There was potential jail time for everybody involved.”

Beamer said as the group was being inspected, the ranger did find a glass bottle. However, it was not the glass bottle containing the substance.

“What wound up happening was that we had another glass bottle that had sparkling cider in it and [the ranger] finds it and says, ‘you all have to leave,’” Beamer said.

The group was saved by the sparkling cider since the ranger did not have to search the bags any further. The group packed up the car and found some other place to hang out.

Using grass can help someone relax or even feel rebellious. Whatever the case may be, it can change one’s perspective of the world while being under the influence. Nothing makes a funny or crazy story worse than having it get out of hand.