The IWALLK Essays - 8. THC and the Creative Process

Cannabis Edibles, Smoked Flower, Smoked Concentrate, Vaping and the Creative Process

One of the Queens at night, September 2019, SoftAcres, Farmington, Maine

INTRODUCTION

After trying all the ways to get THC into my brain, I think finally found what I like and what works best for my specific goals.

Although I do have physical/psychological issues that can benefit from using THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol)[1], medicating is not my primary reason for writing this report. Let’s get into it and skip a big set-up. I offer the following as a resource for other folks who might identify with it, but not as a general guide. Each person must learn what is best for him/her.

I am a creative worker (a writer, musician, and multimedia artist)—a creator. If I am not able to access my creativity, unsurprisingly, I simply can’t work on creative pursuits. When I say “access my creativity,” I mean three basic things: (A) be motivated enough to work on creative projects, (B) be inspired enough to integrate novel angles into those projects, and (C) be in a mind space that allows the recognition of the apparent sub/superconscious generation of those novel angles. THC is one way to access these things.

I don’t have to be “high” to be creative. Neither do you. However, I will say that your straight parents were wrong when they told you that you were deceiving yourself about being “more creative” when you use marijuana/THC. Typical of the patronization of cultural experts on “drugs,” but who don’t actually have real experience using them, your parents were instead deceiving themselves. But it wasn’t their fault. American culture is finally waking up from its own mass self-deception nightmare. 

A few people (Harry Anslinger in the early years and Nixon in the latter years)[2,3] conspired to lie to the multitudes last century. This foggy-logic and governmental infantilization foisted upon the minds of a public more than willing to believe whatever it was told, by these few people who benefitted financially and politically, caused (and is still causing) some of the most draconian and unjust public policy and destructive law enforcement actions in US history—racial profiling, forfeiture laws, minimum sentencing requirements, and the rise of private prisons comes to mind. 

Anecdotally, I lost my pesky social paranoia (something that dogs many illicit THC users) the very moment marijuana was legalized for recreational use in Maine—by people’s referendum. That’s when I realized it was the cultural fear of being arrested, fined, having a permanent record, mixed with the unjustified social stigma of it all, that makes for “bad trips” with the use of any mind-expanding substance.

In this case I’m discussing THC, but I remember well that unnecessary fear (that paranoid feeling) often accompanied my psychedelic use in the past as well; not a danger of drug use, but rather a fear of the unjust laws surrounding it. 

With all of this in mind though, my desire to use these substances (because of the boost it gives to creativity through the amplification of all three aspects I mentioned earlier) has never wavered, since I was about 15 years old. I always wanted/needed “something more.” The voluntary use of substances as tools on the palette of creativity - THC, in this case - DID NOT result in the addiction I was brainwashed to think it was. Instead, it was a natural and sacred religious right. I know that now. I also know, perhaps in my genetic memory, that our ancestors sought out mind-expanding substances as creative tools, especially whenever I see those most ancient hand prints on the archaic cave walls of prehistory.

Now for the practical observation of what works best for me as a creator…

I have had an enormous amount of experience with smoking weed. I first did it back when I was still going through adolescence. I don’t recommend that children do this. Realistically though, my friends and I were the same kind of small minority percentage of substance seekers in school that has always existed and will always exist in society in general. Whatever that percentage is (maybe, < 20%?), we tried everything from nutmeg in orange juice to smoking baked banana peels. I don’t know if I am on the more edgy side of the mean curve of that group, but I was always attracted to altering my consciousness. 

When I was a kid I saw the affects of alcohol on people (good and bad) and couldn’t wait to experience it! I turned into a substance-experience junky—but NOT a “junky.” Yet, it wasn’t until I sat down at my little multitrack cassette recorder as teenager and began to record music while stoned that I GOT it! It was at the same time that John Lennon had been shot and I was reading about the influence of “drugs” not only on Lennon, but on the Beatles, thence through their music out into society and how profoundly this influenced all the popular AND alternative music we hear today (not to mention many other fields, even science—the helical structure of DNA was discovered by Francis Crick while macrodosing LSD, for example)[4].

Over four decades, I discovered that it wasn’t only music, but ALL of my creative endeavors—even organizing budgets could be improved when re-seen (in the mind-changed state of being on THC) from outside what was assumed to be most efficient. I lost useless habits and biases by seeing them from the outside and realizing their futility. I was able to separate myself from the unconscious loyalty to unquestioned habit. And, it’s benefits went on and on. In fact, it is this “viewing it from the outside” quality that makes creation more visceral. When a composer can step outside of him/her self and listen to music (for example) as would his/her fan or receiver, expression can be maximized to provide more of what the consumers of music are really looking for. As a musician I can pretend I’m not the one performing, and thereby create more objectively.

EDIBLES

I have been fortunate enough to be making my own edibles from plants I grew, dried, cured, and decarboxylated (a simple heating process that turns the plant’s raw, non-psychoactive THCA - tetrahydrocannabinolic acid [5] - into ingestible and orally active THC by removing the carboxyl group). 

Edibles Dosage - I’ve established 50 mg of THC per dose as something I’m comfortable with. As many people know, too much orally ingested THC can be very psychologically uncomfortable. And not enough is a tease, since temporary tolerance can limit the efficacy of taking more until the initial dose is metabolized. It’s a fine line. The nervousness and confusion brought about by overdosing on edible THC kept me from enjoying its benefits for years. Now that I have plenty to experiment with, I am fortunate enough to find my sweet spot. Fifty mg may seem like a lot to some folks (as 10 mg is a suggested starting dose), but I know “hardheads” who can’t even feel 100 mg, and need twice that much just to get an effect. 

Edibles Method - Now that I understand what works for me, I slip about 5 grams of infused coconut oil (at ~10 mg/g THC) into my coffee in the morning—great combination by the way, peek around noon, and a comfortable anti anxiety and elevated mood lasts nearly all day. Without using more, I can easily fall asleep at night. 

Edibles Usefulness - For me, the calming psychological effects provide a foundation for stacking tiny amounts of “micro-smoking” (as opposed to whole pipefuls) of marijuana flower (with/without concentrates added). This is more like vaping, as very little burnt material is inhaled. I have heart disease and can’t - and don’t want to - just “smoke a bowl.” When I’m peeking from edibles and occasionally add whisps of smoke/vapor I can “see” music in my mind. It's normal for me. I witness it flowing by and can distinguish all of its shapes and colors, it’s many dimensions (tone, pitch, volume, effects, harmonies, etc.). In this way, I can see where improvements or creative touches can be added, or (sometimes more importantly) where to whittle things off of it to tighten it up. As a side effect - and as mentioned earlier - I not only hear as one of my listeners might, but also I FEEL its emotions much more strongly and can exploit emotional aspects I wouldn’t have caught without a little mind expansion. Even without smoking - while still ingesting the edible dose of THC - I can do similar things, they just aren’t as pronounced. This combination of edible and vape/smoke is the most insightful way to create music, with exclusively smoking a close second, and exclusively orally ingesting a close third.

Edibles Cons - Again, it is easy to overdo eating THC. I am used to the effects now, but I avoid driving—not because I can’t drive while high, but because driving stresses me out. Why do it if I don’t have to? And, while sometimes not being able to avoid it, people shouldn’t drive like that anyway. Another thing is (and this is perhaps specific to me personally) I sometimes get overly distracted by the mental and emotional effects of music when under the influence of THC in general, and lose my train of thought. In other words, I space out. When that happens, I tell myself that there will be plenty of time to space out after the day’s work is done. I use the enjoyment of simply listening as a reward for recording my own music.

SMOKED FLOWER

Thankfully, I’m also blessed to have a good amount of smokable bud from last summer’s plants. Smoking (and I mean the kind of “micro smoking” mentioned under the “EDIBLES” section above) has always been my favorite method of THC use. It was what I was used to for all the years leading up to these more liberal laws and current vast availability of various other products (like edibles and concentrates). I bought some hash a few times during those dark ages of, “Just say no!” But, I never had a regular source for it. I was always most satisfied with the effects of simply smoking a pipe. However, after two heart attacks and a bypass surgery I just can’t afford to risk having the dirtier parts of smoke in my cardio pulmonary system. Micro-smoking is the compromise I make for still using weed in the way that makes me most satisfied. And, it is very effective when stacked on top of an edible (as I’ve said).

Smoked Flower Dosage - As discussed, I micro-smoke. I am very sensitive to THC anyway. And for some reason the physiological tolerance for orally ingested THC is on a different level. Think of a long curve that stretches over 6-8 hours for a tolerance to edibles. In other words, you would have to wait until a few hours after you are totally sober again to be affected in the same way edibles work by eating more. On the other hand, smoked flower’s curve of tolerance is much shorter (~1-3 hours), peaking immediately (where edibles may take an hour to set in), lasting minutes rather than hours, and then withdrawing when sober for an hour or so. This means you can feel a dose of smoked weed (something in the micrograms range—or, thousandths of a milligram—maybe 500 gamma (?), in my case, keeping in mind that most of what you inhale is then exhaled not attaching to the lungs—that’s a small dose!), derive a peak experience for about 15 minutes and by the time an hour has gone by after the first dose, I’m ready for the next. This is pretty light duty use. But, recall, I am stacking it on top of an edible.

Smoked Flower Method - I smoke out of a small, cheap metal bowled pipe. I pinch out some from the jar and put it on a clean screen, with a fully open draw. Then I light by bringing the flame just to the point where it heats (more-than burns) the material, and ideally doesn’t keep smoldering. I breathe in the whisp very slowly, but exhale immediately, without holding it in. Just one good hit lasts me at least an hour of creative work. 

Smoked Flower Usefulness - For me, it really is about a creative mind space that allows me to see my current project from an alternative perspective. Smoking is the easiest way I’ve found for visualizing music. It can also be good for breaking a non-musical writing block, while providing that alternative perspective. The slow experiential curve of edible THC, means a greater amount of effort is necessary to grab a moment of insight. Eating THC is more like tripping. You don’t get the meaning of the experience until you review it when you're straight again. With smoking while using orally one can take short forays into the deeper end of the pool of the creative process. It feels safer somehow to smoke while on an edible, than taking so much THC orally in order to achieve the same alternative perspective that smoking allows, and thereby, overdosing and having a shitty time. As a visual artist I used to draw while smoking. In my experience, it was more like a recreational activity. By its nature, drawing is a condensation of dynamic, broader strokes that are honed down into a (usually) static final image. But I can also see how a long visual art process, like a painting project that develops of many days, could be very satisfying to smoke flower during.

Smoked Flower Cons - It’s kind of the same very limited bummers with all THC products. The physical danger is minuscule, but the psychological risk is significant if through foolishness or accident you are overwhelmed by the psychoactive experience. Micro-smoking as I do is easy to deal with, but another con, in my case, is that ideally I would like to get the same feeling and insight of smoking without having extra stuff (tars and soot) in my lungs. I am fortunate to have not been very negatively affected by a once heavy tobacco cigarette habit. But my lungs are delicate now, having been partially collapsed recently after surgery. I thought pen vaping could answer that problem, but as we’ll see, it wasn’t.

CONCENTRATES

In this section I refer to “concentrates,” I mean THCA (smokable) concentrates, and am not referring to the decarboxylated THC concentrates used in edibles. I am also not referring to THCA admixed with oil, as with vape pens. I am referring to pressed trichome hash and other extracts (substances with concentrations of THCA of 50-90%, say). In my case, I use pure, mechanically (rather than chemically—although CO2 extraction isn’t bad) extracted THCA resin—as with a fresh or hot pressed extract. So-called “wax” (if I understand the unofficial nomenclature correctly) would also fall into this category as long as it was mechanically produced.

Concentrates Dosage - When smoked THCA converts by being heated into THC, that goes directly into the bloodstream through the lining of the lungs and then through the blood brain barrier. This is as opposed to the relatively slow process that decarboxylated THC is finally absorbed by the lining of the small intestine and slowly collect in the bloodstream, a much more indirect route to the brain. Smoked concentrate gives me a deeper dive for a shorter amount of time than smoked flower. It is in actuality more than is necessary for deep diving. If you can get your whisps to be as tiny as possible, you would consume your supply much more slowly. The “high” or the “deep” is only so high or so deep, via this method. And it does build up a tolerance in my experience that makes smoked flower less effective until smoking anything is put off for a few hours. This brings me down to the shelf where the edibles curve is still at work. Even better is to wait until the baseline after that. To summarize dosage?: Every few days I’ll smoke one tiny dab of concentrate, no more than 1-2 hits for the whole day, and will avoid smoking flower.

Concentrates Method - I do a combination of dabbing and micro-smoking. It’s simple. I scoop a piece of concentrate and add it to the center of a fresh small pipeful of flower. I melt it by heating with the light held back a bit. Then it melts all over and bonds with the slightly charred material underneath. The concentrate takes longer to burn than flower, but it melts into the neutral carbon of the ash on top, creating a little crystalline cap. I don’t have the equipment to make concentrates, so I get them in other ways. 

Concentrates Usage - So as I can use smoked flower to dive into the deep end of the creative process while on an edible, smoked concentrate is the way to reach the tiles at the bottom of the deep end. I never feel like I am “getting high” or flying. I’m not sure who really does feel that way? I feel more like I am swimming into my mind. In my opinion, ultimate reality exists within the mind, not in spacetime on the outside. We view the world from the outside in, rather than the way we THINK we view the world—from the inside out. That is why the metaphor of the deep end is applicable. The further one explores the inside, the further toward sources other than one’s self can be contacted or tools can be found to bring back into the every-day world of sobriety. Concentrate can sometimes get me there and back. But I use it sparingly. There are plenty of musical and artistic concepts to be mined in the shallower waters.

Concentrate Cons - THC at greater concentrations in the brain requires a greater amount of time in my life to process. It can exhaust me. 

VAPING

I don’t use any vape hardware at this time. I have a vape pen (510 cartridge type), I bought it because I was thinking it would be better for me than smoking. The concept seems healthier, but I wonder? Please see the “Vaping Cons” section below. A liquid oil is combined with pure THCA to keep it evenly diluted in fluid form. When a draw is made through the mouthpiece, the battery (usually charged by USB DC adapter) heats the oil to exactly the point of vaporization, but below the level of incineration (burning). Technically there is no smoke at all, just like with electronic cigarettes. 

Vaping Dosage - If done correctly one hit would be a very clean version of a dabbed hit, but shorter lasting. When I say “clean” I mean that it is more like a physical rather than mental effect. I found it kind of like a hydrocodone pain killer. Ideally a 1000 mg should last longer than the ten grams of weed that the THCA came from. 

Vaping Method - This is how the oil vaping pen system shines. You don’t do anything but suck on that sucker, then inhale with air. But be careful and read the “Vaping Cons” below. In my opinion, nothing hurts (and may harm?) like an over-hit from a vape pen. Slipping it in and out of your pocket without spillage makes it extremely convenient and discreet.

Vaping Usage - I found that having a pen was nice during the day to use if I wanted that clarity, but I didn’t feel as inspired as by directly (without oil) smoking concentrate on flower. I suppose it could be mixed into the recipe of creative process. If swimming was our metaphor earlier, I found vaping to be like hanging out in the shallow end. The water was clear but not overly filled with meaning. As a creative tool, vaping - for me - might fill the space that discretion demands. In other words, where smoking a pipe isn’t possible. I used to go outside while working downtown at the library or Dunkin Donuts and take drags on the pen.

Vaping Cons - The oil admixture used to keep the THCA liquid is a crappy system. I don’t like ingesting filler in any way. I always coughed unless I filled my lungs with air first then took a tiny puff of the pen. No thanks! Now, with the controversy of oil vaping and the possibility of getting badly made shit? Until I can buy a vape pen that vaporizes pure THCA, I’ll have to go without in public, which is just as well.

SUMMARY

I will go for days and sometimes weeks with no THC at all just to make sure I am viewing things correctly for myself. I am more likely to do an edible, and not smoke for a day or two. I am fortunate, even having experienced temporary dementia after my surgery, not to have a negative crossover into my infrequent and voluntary use of THC as a psychoactive. There seems to be no real delay in the mental process of healing, whether I use THC or not. I may be nearing the end of my life, but when it comes to my experience with THC and marijuana, self control is my REAL drug. And rather than limiting me, being able to shift in and out of using psychoactive substances of any kind (even caffeine), without becoming habituated, is liberating.

Nevertheless, I cannot make and mix music (for example) effectively without a full toolbox. THC should be included. It’s like driving without my glasses. I don’t want to drive my music without THC. I can get by but I am partially “blinded” by not being able to see the music—full spectrum. Some other rarer visionary substances would work, but I have none. Once in a while, starved of THC, a drink might even work in a weak way, but not reliably. For me, seeing the music (aside from the use of psychedelics) can only properly be done with THC. And despite my delicate financial situation, having grown plants last year, my THC use is really independent of my current budget.  

I’m very encouraged that the world is about to benefit culturally from the freer availability and guiltless use of cannabis in all of its forms. But the profound change will be revealed most prominently through art, music, and books, transmitted by an ever more tenacious kinds of communication, driven by technological advancement… 

I hope that the end of prohibition will take the cultural thumb off the scale weighted against the artist, in all his/her forms, by balancing it out with increased cognitive liberty. In other words, for me, this is a religious issue. How I use my mind in any way I want is a sacred and universal human right. My life is my personal religion. It’s holy rites and rituals (no matter what judgement others pass upon them) are fundamentally mine to use for myself as I worship in my own way. That includes using any legal psychoactive substances I need or want, as a mind tool. If society can free the mind of the common person by placing value on personal religious liberty (as opposed to “group religious liberty,”) I think collectively, we as a species might become less greedy. 

The satisfaction of mapping what I call: the nonphysical truths can turn your wasteful castle into one room that does it all…that being, whatever room you’re in! Of course! 

Perhaps our love of things, our "thing fetishism," will contract into cheap long-lasting worlds of the mind—instead of houses filled with unused stuff, yet electronically interconnected like never before. Someday something like this is going to happen. It may take several versions to run their courses before a lasting world peace is strong enough to handle and limit the crushing gravity and deep integration of each of us into each other’s personal space. 

Given the choice, let the artists inform the culture, rather than the other way around. Peace will only last when we are cognitively liberated as individuals. It is still possible!

* * * * * * *

NOTES 

1) THC [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol] 

2) Harry Anslinger [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger] 

3) Richard Nixon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon] 

4) Francis Crick [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick] 

5) THCA [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinolic_acid]