And so to one of the worst drug experiences of my life, courtesy of a class of drug which only emerged because cannabis was illegal.
The road map started with JWH-018 (the original spice), a chemical which delivered some of the features of cannabis but with edges which were less than healthy. As this and subsequent chemical replacements were classified, via creeping legislation, new generations became stronger and increasingly toxic. It was only a matter of time before compounds like 5F-AKB48 and AM-2001 appeared.
My supply of the former was branded ‘Magic Dragon’, and my first couple of rides were rough and unforgiving, but navigable. It was a case of third time unlucky, as I dragged myself up to the bed and lay in fetal position; terrified, paranoid and praying for it to end.
In reality though I was lucky, because I was reasonably experienced by this point, and I knew that eventually it would indeed end. I cast my mind to anyone who didn’t have this faint light at the end of the tunnel: the trauma in such a scenario would surely be a multiple of what I was enduring.
Eventually the worst was over; the only positive being that I survived and am able to use the experience as a cautionary tale: synthetic cannabinoids are not where you want to be.
Note that the hands holding the cannabinoid in the photograph are not mine: I took this in a major UK city (Manchester) during an interview with a homeless man who was addicted and living from toke to toke. He was locked into misery, courtesy of a government (and its media) preening over the latest hardening of its war on drugs whilst blaming and besmirching its broken victims.
