"By this time the soma had begun to work. Eyes shone, cheeks were flushed, the inner light of universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles. Even Bernard felt himself a little melted."

Brave New World

10 years ago at this time in 2007 I gave up smoking pot. I decided I had gotten everything I needed from 40 years of getting high. I had just lost a wife, a house, and almost all my money and thought it prudent to maybe change course.

Pot is a funny drug for me. I remember reading an interview with Jim Morrison back in the day and him talking about how he liked drinking because you got drunk and then sobered up, whereas pot just kind of stuck with you all the time in a semi-stoned state. I could appreciate that description.

I had a fairly sophisticated grow room for its time in Detroit and had even built a better one in my new Florida house under the pretense it was a 'hurricane safe room'. It had a dedicated circuit, it's own AC, exhaust fans, etc. And it never got used.

I woke up one morning and packed a half pound of Original Skunk #1, a powerful old school Indica/Sativa hybrid, a nice bong, 3 glass pipes, Jorge Cervantes' book 'The Indoor Marijuana Grower's Bible' all in a backpack with a reggae emblem on it. I kept one tiny bud in case of an emergency, which turned out to be a wise move, as a future story will tell. I drove down to Centennial Park in Ft, Meyers and saw a homeless dude at this shelter in the picture who looked like he had smoked some dope in his time. I asked him if he liked to smoke pot. He said 'yes'. I said 'This is your lucky day, Sparky'. I dropped the backpack in his lap and walked away....