- Flashback -

Wow, talking about taking me back in time.  Smoking small amounts of marijuana, or cannabis, in private, is now legal in Colorado.  I have watched the media cover this, along with the selling of sales licenses, since the new year, and never really thought much about it.  Today, I stopped inside the local bus station to get a sip of water from the fountain,and was asked something I haven't been asked in years - "Do you have a few extra rolling papers I can have?"  I told the young man that I didn't, and got my water and went back to my pick-up area.  Then I started trying to remember when I had last been approached and asked for "rolling papers"...  and had to admit that the last time I remember that happening, I was at a concert that featured Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Roger McGuinn at the University of Florida.  In trying to pinpoint the year, the closest I could come was 1976 or 1977 - I know it was before I cut my right index finger off two days before Thanksgiving in 1977...  I know who I went to the concert with, and that we traveled on his motorcycle, and I remember having a wonderful time.  Marijuana never did anything "for" me - it just made me giggle insanely at everything, so I only used it once or twice.
  My Dad was an alcoholic, and, other than trying to drink for a little while, in college, I gave that up, too.  I suffer from migraine headaches, and alcohol brings them on - even though I didn't know it at the time.  All I knew was I always had a "hang over" that lasted a week, and that I'd spend most of the 24 hours after I stopped imbibing in the bathroom - either throwing up or with diarrhea.  Neither was pleasant, so I stopped doing that, also. I have to admit that up until 6 years ago, I occasionally - once or twice a year - had a cocktail.  But I don't really like the taste, and I have an allergic reaction to gin, so I've stopped drinking.
  I never tried LSD, but I did have a good dose of psychedelic mushrooms one night; at least, I was told they were -   The next day my friends told me about all these strange mental experiences they had; while I don't remember a thing out of the ordinary happening to me, mentally or physically....  I figure either I didn't ingest enough to "get high," or that I just didn't react to it for some unknown reason.
   It's possible that I'm just a spoil-sport.  I prefer to observe the world that I live in from a mind that isn't clouded (or enhanced) by psychotropic drugs.  I'd rather see and evaluate things as they actually happen. Maybe that's why I enjoy history so much - it's already happened, so it's cut and dried, other than the perspective.  But, then, I love to read science fiction, fantasy, and fiction, as well - maybe reading is my drug of choice....   I know I'm certainly addicted to it!