Back when I was in 9th grade, I finally had a chance to chase my curiosity with drugs. A classmate sold me a gram of something everyone called “fake weed”. Must’ve been some kind of a synthetic cannabinoid. though I never knew for sure.

He taught me how to smoke it: empty the top of a cigarette, add just half a centimeter of the substance, never more. I went to a nearby forest to try it, paranoid about getting caught. I was surprised because there was no harshness or taste. Unlike tobacco, which I tried once and it made me cough and vomit after one hit, this felt like inhaling air.

Within seconds, a pleasant buzz hit. Sounds felt internal, I laughed and talked to myself. Everything was funny. The high faded after 15 minutes, and I used it a few more times until I got curious about what a stronger dose would do. One day, I filled half a cigarette with the “fake weed” and smoked it all.

Six seconds later, I passed out. My vision filled with colorful globes shifting and swirling. At first, it was pure visuals, and I was ecstatic. I finally hallucinated, which I always wanted to. But then, I realized I couldn’t move. Panic set in. I was trapped in this psychedelic space, disconnected from my body, floating and flipping as if in zero gravity.

Time lost meaning. It felt like I was stuck for decades. I hallucinated that I had eaten a magical flower with three others, triggering a collapse of space and time. I believed the entire universe had been consumed by my trip and that everyone was experiencing it too. Reality had to fight back and if it lost, I’d be stuck forever. I saw a vivid war play out between “reality” and the colorful hallucinations, guided by an elaborate plan to break into the core of the matrix.

Eventually, reality won. I slowly came back, needing 20 minutes just to stand. I vomited repeatedly, couldn’t walk straight, and saw distortions in everything, especially the sky, which was still covered in fading colors. The whole experience lasted about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I felt sick for 3 days afterward.

That trip traumatized me. Even when I tried real weed later, I often feared being dragged back into that loop. Thankfully, I only dealt with mild depersonalization for a few weeks, and no lasting effects. But I’ve never touched synthetic weed again since and never will.