If I was going to share a few things with you on a personal level with respect to how I live my life on a daily basis,...e.g. a list of the top three facts to know about me...one of the things that I would talk about would inevitably have something to do with marijuana. My appreciation of cannabis began to blossom in the spring of 2010, and by summer of 2011 it was as if I was living in Amsterdam. The critical turning point came after being found drunk and passed out at on the grounds of my apartment complex; I then came to the conclusion (in the interest of my own health and well being) that I needed a change from my primary recreational substance (alcohol). I had had some positive casual encounters with marijuana up until that time (Q1 of 2010), and I considered putting resources behind this relatively new (to me) substance. And just like that I began budgeting myself for marijuana as my primary recreational narcotic; alcohol took a spot on the back burner.
When I began smoking marijuana in the spring of 2010, my craft was really quite crude. I would simply break off nugs of cannabis and put them in my glass for smoking.
The burn was inconsistent...depending on the density of the nugs...and it was challenging to thoroughly burn through to the center of the marijuana nugget. I was also challenged in that I wanted to take my marijuana out to public spaces for the smoking, and that meant juggling various smoking paraphernalia along with my dog, backpack and oftentimes a tasty beverage to boot...so much bagage!
Plus if I got busted smoking in public, each peace of equipment used for smoking marijuana could garner its own citation. The more equipment you get busted with...glass, one-hit-it, on top of the actual cannabis...the more expensive that experience is going to be. I needed to optimize my smoking experience to have a smaller legal footprint and be more flexible.
I purchased a pack of loose tobacco in Q1 of 2011 and began practicing rolling my own smoking medium. I also purchased a grinder, and by early spring of 2011, I had begun rolling joints on the fly. Note that the grinder also allowed me to pack my glass bowls more efficiently for an even and consistent burn; waay better than the cave man bust-off-a-nug-and-burn-it-method that I was previously employing.
Now, I would simply keep rolling papers and a few grams of ground cannabis in my pocket, and whenever I felt like burning one down, I would pull out my product and roll one up. This could happen anywhere...at coffee shops, walking my dog at the park, or simply driving my car across town for some after-work relaxation. And I did a lot of driving across town as I got kicked out of my local and favorite coffee shop watering hole for smoking marijuana inside. Bummer!
I've been in the internet technology business now for 12 years (6 of those years at Moxie, a leading digital advertising agency). If someone were to ask me what my dream job (a job done for the satisfaction and not necessarily for the money) would be, I honestly would probably lean towards getting into agriculture in the marijuana industry. There are not too many opportunities for that in Norcross, Georgia...where I live...but the legal landscape in the United States of America is changing all the time!
Oh, and if the above was one out of three things to know about me,...real quick...the second and third would be that 1) I'm an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America who has received Vigil Honors and 2) my dog is way cooler than me!
