Please enjoy this video of a state senator adorably trying weed for the first time
While our current, social media-infused age means that there’s a good chance most people will have their first experience with weed thoroughly documented and shared for posterity, older generations have had to let these memories fade away with the passage of time. One middle-aged Utah lawmaker, though, has shown it’s never too late to get with the times. He’s done so, hilariously, by having a friend tape him getting high for the very first time as a political experiment.
Please enjoy.
The man in question—a Democratic state senator from Salt Lake City named Jim Dabakis—decided to film his maiden voyage into greener pastures for a pretty good reason. Utah is set to vote on a ballot to legalize medical marijuana very soon and Dabakis, rather than assume he understands much about weed without having ever tried it, set out to write his very own, PG-rated Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by traveling to the Nevadan city and munching a few edibles.
It’s a good video, not just for the image of a guy old enough to tuck in his T-shirt getting excited to sample weed for the first time in a dispensary’s parking lot, but for the lovely moment when Dabakis assures viewers that he has “never tasted, smoked, eaten, [or] shot up marijuana in my life.” At the last, he pantomimes the motion, familiar to every real head, of injecting a hypodermic syringe full of dried plant matter into his arm.
The best part is probably Dabakis being so bashfully eager about his first time entering the wild world of weed, explaining how he was instructed in the strange arts of enjoying an edible by the salesperson before sighing dramatically, sniffing and licking the gummy bear like a house cat, then pretending to stagger around after eating it.
Speaking to Vice, Dabakis detailed the rookie mistake of dipping back into the edibles at his hotel room after getting impatient waiting for anything to happen. He says the experience itself was “a kind of warm glow” that “wasn’t life-changing” or “seem like … anything profound.”
The novice psychonaut posted a quick follow-up video reiterating the political motivation for his trip and that weed, in the balance, is “not that big a deal.” He also says the Utah legislature should all go eat a few gummy bears before voting and maybe just chill out a bit when they’re thinking about the “dangers” of marijuana. This is good advice and also, wonderfully, sounds a lot like any new weed convert, eager to spread the gospel of relaxation, regardless of age.
[via Vice]
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