Chapter 1 from my novel Dungeons and Dispensaries. I discover the joy of smoking cannabis for the first time.

By the end of the summer, I had an appetite for weed on a regular basis. I knew I needed my own bong so I could get high without Griffin. Once school started up again, I bought my first bong off a classmate for $20. He claimed he was quitting smoking weed after getting caught by his parents. He paid $40 but would accept $20. It was used and not clean at all. It was made of plastic and smelled like an ashtray. On the front it had a big Sector Nine skateboarding sticker on it.

By my junior year in high school, I was already selling weed. I started off combining my money with a group of different friends who also smoked weed. Each Friday I would collect everyone’s money during school. Then after school I would ride my bike over to the local dealer’s house. I bought the weed and then split it up into everyone’s specific portions. I would hang out and take a few bong rips. I always made sure to pack one for my dealer. Then I delivered each portion to

In order to get weed I had to find a new source. I was not even selling weed anymore at this point. I just needed weed to smoke. P.J. and my former crew made that difficult. That summer before Senior year, in order to keep me out of trouble, my dad gave me a job working for him as a house painter. I was only doing entry level tasks like covering floors with paper and tape and cleaning up but I managed to earn a little money. My parents did not want to give me all the money at

I started hanging out regularly at Jason’s house. We converted his garage full of old furniture into our smoking lounge. Over time we started collecting free furniture we saw the neighbors throwing out or someone's family was getting rid of. Our first major addition was a white L shaped couch we found a few blocks away. It took the two of us three trips to carry it all into the garage. Jason thoroughly cleaned it. We each claimed one of the corners as our regular seat. Neithe

Jason had a cousin named Lil Ron. Lil Ron looked the complete opposite of Jason. While Jason was ridiculously tall, Lil Ron was short. He was an ambitious hustler with a bowl cut hybrid hairstyle. His dark hair swept across his forehead. He had a big nose, perfect for snorting as much coke as possible and an overbite optimized for chewing up pills. Jason got majority of his weed from Lil Ron. Since Jason and I started putting our money together I started getting my weed from

My senior year in high school there was a house on my block that became the official high school party house. As the nearest weed dealer I eventually got invited to one of their parties. A sophomore girl from my school named Tasha lived there with her father. Her father was constantly traveling for work and never home. At one of their quieter parties, I met Sierra. Sierra was a petite blond who loved to dance and drink. She was Tasha’s best friend and an absolute bitch to any

A few months later, literally a week after my 18th birthday I received a message from Brandon Rodriguez. We caught up for an hour or so on instant messenger. I told him how I was selling weed and making tons of money. He was in town; he now had his own van and offered to come pick me up to hang out at some girl’s house. If I had been in school like a normal high school senior, I would not have been able to go but I was in independent study. Brandon pulled up outside my house

Diversion was a six-month program. You attended weekly three-hour meetings similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. Except everyone there was a serious drug addict. Everyone but me. The meetings were at the community center of a nearby town about ten minutes from my house. The initial sign up was $300. Then you had to pay weekly payments of $30 for each meeting. The meetings were held in a classroom style setting with a big circle of chairs facing each other. The man running the prog

In the wake of Lil Ron getting busted Jason had to find a new steady source for weed. Lil Ron left a serious weed shaped hole in the South Bay. There were obviously other dealers, but their prices did not match up to Lil Ron and the weed he got from Hookr. Lil Ron's biggest competitor was Jody Santini. Jody was the guy who rode the motor scooter and sold weed to Doogie. The Santini family supposedly got their weed from Northern California and had a firm grip of the streets of

When the oldest Santini brother Bobby heard Carson was hanging out with us at Jason’s house and that he stole Jody's weed, he was furious. A few days after Carson's return, Jason received a phone call from a number he did not recognize. He let the call go to voicemail and then quickly checked it once his phone alerted him to a message. He seemed to hear the voice and metaphorically shit himself right then and there. It was Bobby. “Carson is not allowed at your house anymore.

Peter was Dyno Mutt’s older friend. Apparently, he had dated his older sister until she discovered he was a loser. He was already 22 and bought majority of our booze. He was also a mooch and sometimes only agreed to buy booze if he could drink it with us for free. He looked like a young Johnny Depp from "What's eating Gilbert Grape" and had a big mole on his cheek. The rumor around town was that Peter’s parents supposedly killed an elderly man they were taking care of and sus

One day when I was at work, Jason met up with one of his regular customers to sell them a sack in a park near his house. The park was empty, so they decided to pack a bowl in a pipe Jason was carrying on him. One of the neighbors must have seen Jason and his friend smoking and called the police. Jason had only been in the park for ten minutes. Twenty squad cars pulled up in the park parking lot. The uniformed officers jumped out of their vehicles with guns drawn. It was compl

Jason was living on the East Coast. His grandmother owned a large estate on an acreage outside a small town in rural New Jersey. Jason was born and raised in Los Angeles. To say this was a culture shock would be an understatement. The worst thing about living on the East Coast was he had no way to get weed. Jason’s grandmother was older and not the easiest person to live with or the kindest to Jason. She often lectured him about the bad decisions he had made that led to him l

I was working for my dad painting houses five days a week. It was a steady paycheck, but truth be told I hated it. I saved up enough money to buy a ticket and bring spending money for a trip to New York to visit Jason. We planned my visit right around his next weed harvest. I flew out to New York and my mom arranged for one of her friends who lived there to pick me up from the airport and drop me off at Jason’s house. I remember it being really cold standing outside at the ai

Sara, my high school Dominatrix, moved out of state to Las Vegas after graduation. We remained friends on Myspace over the years but did not talk much. Myspace was the original social media website for those who were born after 2000. I would describe it as Facebook with freedom of speech. I had casually mentioned coming to hang out with Sara while on vacation in her area, but it never panned out. After Sara, I dated a few women, but they all were very submissive and never rea

One night Sara suggested we meet a few friends from high school at a local bar called Pitcher Place for some drinks. Pitcher Place was the local dive bar/sports bar. They were known for their cheap pitchers of beer, ping pong and pool tables, and a popular resident DJ. I invited John Ripley, and Sara had invited Mandy, and they were hitting it off. They were both alcoholics, so they had that in common. I was excited at the prospects of us potentially double dating in the futu

After a few months officially together, Sara and I went to Venice Beach boardwalk for a weekend day trip. Venice was the best place to buy a new bong. We went door to door at what seemed like dozens of smoke shops looking for the best deal on something we both liked. I mainly had my heart on paying a visit to the old Smokin Heaven shop. As we were walking along, a young hippie with dirty dreads wearing a weed leaf costume approached us. "You two smoke the ganja?" the hippie a

After High Quiggles closed we spent some time bouncing between different dispensaries. It was hard to settle down at a new place after Mrs. Quiggle had set the bar so high. One day I received a random text from Carson: "Hey come over to my house today, if you can." I text him back and said: "I am on my way." Majority of the year, Carson was up north working on the Santini farm. He was only usually home in Hermosa for about four months each year. Since his house was near the b

Over time I became a regular at the dungeon. We actually lived about 30-45 minutes away from the dungeon and when Sara drove to work alone, she would not be able to use the carpool lane. This resulted in the 45-minute trip taking an hour and 30. She would find excuses to bring me with her when I was off from work. Most of the time it was handyman style odd jobs. There were times when I was not allowed inside the dungeon for various reasons. On those days I would wander Downto