cannabisnews.com: A Night at U. Illinois Can Means Substance Abuse 





A Night at U. Illinois Can Means Substance Abuse 
Posted by FoM on February 08, 2000 at 07:14:03 PT
By Milton D. Carrero, Daily Illini U. Illinois
Source: U-WIRE
Jose dislikes alcohol, so he smokes weed instead. He spends most of his weekends reading or watching movies with his friends in his Champaign apartment. They usually alternate which apartment will host the gathering. But the routine usually remains the same. A movie and some pot tends to be the most common plan. Sometimes mushrooms and acid come into the scene. 
This mixture of chemicals enables them to spend long hours on the couch and sometimes sparks deep conversation about politics and social mishaps. Tonight, Brent is lying on the loveseat in Jose's living room. Jose is sitting on the sofa with his elbows on his knees and his hands encircling his face like a set of parentheses. Jose and Brent are waiting for their friends, Jessica and Nick, to arrive. They're taking too long, so Jose starts the tradition without them. Jose takes the marijuana leaves and spreads them on the living room table. His friend Brent is watching MTV's cartoon show, Daria, while Jose filters through the leaves, ridding them of rocks and seeds. He twists the leaves, breaks them and compacts them into a white bowl, sculpted with the image of an indigenous god. He lights up the bowl, closes his eyes and gasps through the pipe until his lips begin to burn. Brent has now stopped watching television and is staring at Jose with a smile. Jose and Brent take turns explaining why they incorporate marijuana into their weekends as they take turns passing the bowl. "You just incorporate it into your being," says Brent. But marijuana is not the only thing Brent has incorporated into his being. It took him more than two minutes to write all the different drugs he has used or combined. A mixture of LSD, ecstasy, pot and beer are at the top of his list. Prescription drugs also appear mixed with LSD, as well as multiple combinations of mushrooms, opium, cocaine and hard liquor. He said that after feeling the effects of one drug, he always seeks something stronger. He compares his drug addiction to baseball. "Once you hit the bat, you want the ball to roll and keep on rolling. And then you start running and you want to get to first base, and second and third, until you reach home base." Jose hears knocking at the door and gets up from the sofa. Brent continues philosophizing about drugs, baseball and his life. Nick and Jessica join the group. They bring a German film and a French film, as well as a hitter with an extra dose of cannabis. Jose and Brent are ready to smoke. The hitter, a marijuana pipe that resembles a cigarette, is now shared by four. Soon after inhaling, Jessica and Nick join the discussion about drugs. Jessica is concerned about the stigma attached to those who use drugs at the University. "People should really get that image out of their minds that because you use drugs, you are a bad person," says Jessica. Amanda's Christmas Party: Amanda's apartment in Champaign is set for a night of delirious excitement. For $3, the guests have access to blasting hip-hop and pop music, innumerable trips to the keg in the kitchen and a room specially designed for those who either brought their own weed or are smooth enough to persuade others to share. The keg takes almost one-fourth of the space in the kitchen, where six students are gathered, waiting to fill their cups. The aroma from the adjacent room is starting to permeate the kitchen. Five students surround the "dope shrine," placed in an open room furnished with only two chairs, a loveseat, a shelf and the shrine -- all spread around the room's corners. The shrine is a table placed diagonally across the southeast side of the room. Two bongs -- long water-driven pipes used to smoke marijuana -- are placed underneath two place mats, located in each corner. Four aromatherapy candles lay on the center of the table. The smell that emanates from the bubbling bongs eclipses the candles' scent. Drugs are not confined to one room. While some students are taking advantage of the "dope shrine," others experiment with new chemicals in Amanda's room. Amanda takes a Ritalin pill, which is normally used to treat children with attention deficit disorder, and places it on top of the dresser. She smashes it, turning it into powder. She makes two parallel lines of powder and gives Aaron a thin straw that he immediately uses to sniff both lines -- one in each nostril. "This allows me to drink more beer," Aaron said. "With this I get drunk, but I never get plastered." "I went to Mexico and bought cheap coke," Amanda adds. She repeated this several times throughout the night. In the living room people gather around the sofa, smoking and watching television. The pattern repeats itself: People keep visiting the keg in the kitchen, mingling around the dope shrine and returning to the living room. This continues throughout the night. Around midnight, Amanda grabs a bottle of tequila and another of strawberry margarita mix. Amanda walks into the living room showing off the bottles. She stands behind an empty chair and tries to lure one of her guests to sit and try the instant tequila cocktail. Lauren, a slim woman with short blond hair, accepts. "Can I just get a lot of tequila?" she asks. She puts her head back, on top of the chair's back rest, and Amanda starts pouring from both bottles into Lauren's mouth. After two gulps, Lauren pushes forward, placing her head in between her legs. The margarita cocktail appears several times throughout the night. Most of the students who attended Amanda's party believe they can use drugs responsibly. They resent other students who, according to them, "are using all kinds of drugs without knowing what they are doing" and creating a bad reputation for all of them. Meanwhile, Amanda and her guests continue their routine of mixing alcohol with other drugs. (U-WIRE) Champaign, Ill.Published: February 7, 2000(C) 2000 Daily Illini via U-WIRE Students For Sensible Drug Policyhttp://www.ssdp.org/Student Leaders Call For New Drug Lawshttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3608.shtmlCannabisNews Search Of U-Wire Articles:http://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=cannabisnews+U-WIRE
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 08, 2000 at 18:44:10 PT
Here's the link!
Here's the link to the article. It seemed really off the wall to me too but U-WIRE has been good so far.http://news.excite.com/news/uw/000207/university-160
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Comment #1 posted by r.earing on February 08, 2000 at 17:59:16 PT:
gotta be a phony story
Isn't there some sort of moral parable attached? I.E."The kids smoked the pot,then they all exploded!" What about the warning that "boomer" pot was okay but BC bud is sooo potent that you would immediately die if you were to see it? Were they really smoking pot leaves,instead of buds? If so,why? Where does one go to purchase leaves? Why would anyone bother?Very weird story.It sounds made up.Did anyone check if this article is supposed to be real?
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