I feel Marijuana is my spiritual food. I discovered Marijuana's spiritual benefits in 1994 at age 22. It opened my mind up to deep ideas about the world, God, and love of the earth and humankind. All these ideas flowed with euphoria, as I grooved to great music, which MJ enhanced much greater! A couple of years ago I began to study books on different kind of drugs (their chemistry, effects, ect.). After studying PCP, I found that it can be laced into Marijuana, and this frightened me. Continuing to smoke MJ, I was able to control this fear thinking it was a one in a million chance it could happen to me (that my MJ would be laced with PCP).

About a year ago my fear worsened when my friend (who smokes quite often), told me he smoked a joint one night which dissociated him from his body and he saw angels, demons, and other terrifying things. even though he was told "Be careful with this joint," when it was given to him, he smoked it with his friend anyway.

Lately, I have been afraid to try Marijuana thinking this may happen to me. Over the past few months I have tried meditation, and just positive thinking to try and stop this compulsive fear, yet it continues. I long to smoke again because I feel a strong spiritual need for it. If I did smoke a joint with a friend, and it was laced with PCP, after taking a hit or two (if it were laced) would I notice the difference, so I could stop smoking it right away? Would a few hits of a laced joint be enough to trigger a strong pcp trip where I would be dissociated, hallucinate, etc...? Is there a way I can continue to smoke grass (which is always black market obtained) and feel comfortable that I can detect PCP before I take to many hits.

Please help me with any other advice you can give. This is a strong fear of mine. I have been using hypnosis to try and find the source of this deep fear, it compares to death were I am removed from my surroundings and my body (very scary). Yet, I can't go on allowing this to rob me of something that I feel is part of my religion (Marijuana). This may seem like a stupid question and it's embarrassing to me, nevertheless, I feel compelled (after about 1 year of worrying over this) to finally get some advice.

With Peace,
Billy

You do have a problem, Billy. Your paranoia probably stems from the deep lying guilt you have at breaking the law. This paranoia is completely irrational. I have heard many reports of PCP laced marijuana, but I doubt this is a frequent occurence. I've never encountered any. Few people would bother to lace a joint with PCP. PCP is usually snorted like cocaine. How many people put cocaine in a joint??? It's a waste. The only thing usually mixed in a joint is tobacco and that usually happens in Europe.

What I don't understand is if you're so concerned why don't you just roll your own joints! If someone gives you one and you're suspicious, you can just tear it open, look at it and roll it up in a new paper. Is that so hard? If you don't know what to look for, PCP is a white powder. It would fall away from the cannabis. Of course really good cannabis does have white resin on it, but careful examination would reveal that this is sticky stuff not powder.

PCP does take a little while to come on, so if you did smoke some you might not know it before you finish the joint. PCP is a very potent drug. It has been used as animal tranquilizer (like for horses and elephants - the big ones). So very little can get you very high. I suppose that street dealers might think about cutting some inferior grass with some PCP to make it do something. I don't recommend you buy any drugs from unknown street dealers. That is a hard and fast rule we all learned back in the early 70s.

Another way for you to avoid this problem is smoke something that's been smoked before. What I mean is if a friend has some grass they've already tried and it's ok, what's wrong with trying it yourself? In theory, nobody would ever sell you something dangerous. In the case you mentioned the person was warned. If someone warned me I'd want to know why. What is different about this joint. If it's just really strong stuff, I'd be real happy to smoke it. If it's been adulterated, I'd want to know with what, and I'd probably avoid it.

This reminds me of the old Paraquat scare back in the 70's. Rumors went around that the marijuana coming from Mexico was sprayed with paraquat, a defoliant made from dioxins which are linked to cancer. Everyone got so paranoid about it, people actually stopped smoking. This coincided with the health craze. Of course it was just the foes of decriminilization that spread these rumors and then succeeded in getting marijuana laws tightened again. If you just think about it, if the pot had been sprayed, it certainly would have looked different, smelled different, and likely wouldn't have been harvested in the first place since it would have been defoliated!!!

Another sure fire way to know what you're smoking is to make friends with someone who grows the stuff. Then you know what you're getting. Many people grow their own, too. Of course we don't recommend you break the law wherever you live. You really need to confront your fear as that is the mind killer. If we live in fear we really aren't living!

Good luck!
The Old Hippy