DOSE:

smoked

Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

300 lb

I began using cannabis in early 2015. My drug use prior to that had been very minimal: alcohol and hydrocodone. I didn't smoke very much in the beginning. I know it's hard to determine exactly how high I would get, considering potency and personal tolerance. I would usually just take a few hits from a pipe, probably less than 10. I never experienced any unusual or negative effects from it. The drug was always from the same source and did not appear to be synthetic.

One night, after about 10 previous uses, I got higher than usual. I don't remember how many hits, but probably 2 or 3 times my usual amount, nothing too dramatic. As I was driving home that night, after the high wore off, I noticed some strange trails of light coming from the lane markers as I drove by them. The next day I continued seeing some odd visual effects. When looking at certain things on a computer screen, a very brief afterimage would appear of it as I looked away from it. It mainly happened with high-contrast images. I ignored it and figured it would go away. I never seriously considered the possibility that it was the cannabis.

As the weeks went on, I continued smoking a few more times in my previously normal amounts. Everything was fine. Then one night I smoked more than usual again, the most I ever had. This time I would say I smoked 5 times more than usual. Nothing interesting happened during the high and I went home as usual. The next day I noticed that the afterimages were slightly worse, but here's the amazing thing, it got worse as the days went on. By the 3rd day after, I would see an afterimage any time I looked away from something, lasting about one second. It stopped getting worse but as time went on I began to see these afterimages manifest themselves in a lot of different ways. For example if I'm watching TV in the dark and I close my eyes, I continue to see the image from the TV very clearly for about a second. Any time I move my hand quickly a trail follows it. Basically, anything I look at stays in my mind for a second or two longer than it used to.

At first, this ailment depressed me greatly, but eventually I got over it somewhat, in the sense that I can now function normally. I haven't smoked anymore since and don't intend to unless I can figure out some way around this problem. It's been 11 months now and the problem has stayed exactly the same. I've continued drinking alcohol and using hydrocodone since the incident. Those drugs don't seem to influence the problem at all.

It looks like I've been permanently afflicted with this condition. The official name of the condition is palinopsia, which in this case would be an effect of HPPD I believe. I'm not really blaming the weed here. Based on the research I've done, I believe I have an underlying neurological condition that was exacerbated by marijuana. Nonetheless, I think it's important for people to know that some very small percentage of the population may be susceptible to this problem despite the general banality of the drug.

Exp Year: 2015	ExpID: 108261
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 20
Published: Dec 28, 2020	Views: 570
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Cannabis (1) : HPPD / Lasting Visuals (40), Retrospective / Summary (11), Small Group (2-9) (17)