Pot in Prison - an insight into reality

Smokin Moose

Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex Moderator
The author of this essay is currently in prison. Rejecting the use of alcohol in an institutional setting as conducive to violence, he adopts marijuana use for relief of chronic stress.

I'm in prison right now; have been since 1992. I recently left the Federal Penitentiary to finish the State portion of my sentence here in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. I'm not here for drugs. I grow marijuana and smoke it but I've never been in trouble for that. I've never had any problems, personal or legal, with drugs. I am a staunch advocate for the legalization of marijuana for personal/recreational use, for medical use and for the benefit of the economy.

While I was doing time with the Feds, I learned a lot about marijuana. Prison provides a static environment that readily lends itself to the task of measuring action/reaction dichotomy. Drugs of all kinds are plentiful in prison: alcohol, marijuana, c*****e, me**h, L*D, you name it. I have been able to make some very lucid observations about the "dangers" of various drugs. Alcohol is a dangerous drug. At least more dangerous than marijuana. I can't count the number of times, in the past seven years, I've seen a prisoner get drunk and then get in a fight; get drunk and decide they need to pick up a pipe or a shank and get some sort of revenge somewhere for some reason; get drunk and get in trouble. I have never seen prisoners get stoned and decide they'll go whip somebody's ass - doesn't happen. I've seen many angry drunks but never an angry pothead. Even the folks who are nasty drunks are peaceful on pot.

I see people get drunk and want more and more and more. They spend all their money and go into debt getting drunk; drunk to the point they often become sick and miserable. Not so with weed. People smoke a bowl or a joint, get high and that's that. No going into massive debt, no getting sick. The difference is dramatic. This is probably not so obvious in the free world where booze is legal and pot is not; where people typically won't get into as much legal trouble behind liquor as they will behind weed; where there is a terrible, mad "just say no" stigma attached to drugs. Oddly enough, in prison, among people with substance abuse problems, the drunks are at the bottom of the social scale. Drinking problems are frowned on more than other substance abuse problems because they seem to be the most damaging and cause the most trouble - not only for the drunk but for the people around him as well. I'd venture to say a drinking problem (here in prison) is even more damaging than h****n addiction. I've seen people killed over h****n debts. I've seen people contract HIV using dirty needles. I've seen folks wreck their bodies and minds on h****n. I've seen it cause all kinds of problems for people but it pales in comparison to booze.

Here in prison you can get to the real nuts and bolts of what's what concerning drugs and what they do to people. It's a great experiment. Drugs aren't illegal here...well, not for the purposes of this experiment. Let me put it this way: Nobody gives a rat's ass that they're illegal and their illegality doesn't make one iota of difference. What are "they" going to do, put you in jail? Without the threatening factors of illegality and social castigation poised like the Sword of Damocles, one can see specifically which drugs have precisely what effects on people at a very basic and honest level. Based on these observations, it makes no sense that alcohol is legal while marijuana is not. I've used just about every drug there is at least once and some many times. I drink regularly, smoke pot regularly and use c**e, m**h, e****y, a**d and m********s occasionally. I've never been in any sort of legal trouble over drugs and they've never caused me problems in my personal life.

Those are some of my observations and views on the dangers of marijuana; now I'll tell you something about pot as medicine. Prison is a chronically stressful environment where almost constant tension and turmoil reign. I've long since adapted and I get along as well as can be expected. I am basically a happy person. Things could be much better but I make the best of what is. In spite of that there is always some degree of stress present. Not enough to make me miserable or even unhappy but enough to manifest its presence. When I was in Federal prison, marijuana was medicine to me. I smoked it almost every day. Just a puff or two in the morning and a puff or two in the afternoon killed off all the stress. I did not get baked every day (not that I don't like getting baked) but smoked just enough to take the edge off. Surprisingly, thirteen years of regular marijuana use has not raised my tolerance of the drug - at least not in a drastic way.

I think a pot high is great. I love getting stoned. Music sounds better, food tastes better, I see more detail in my surroundings, it's an extremely pleasant high. It is a high, though, and I don't think you can be successful and productive if you stay high all the time - but marijuana is a great recreational drug. Besides using marijuana as a "recreational" drug though, I used it in moderation as a "therapeutic" drug. It made time much easier to do. It absolutely negated the effects of stress in prison. I believe it made - or kept me a healthier person.

In the free world people aren't normally subjected to the kind of stressful conditions that exist in prison every day; therefore there's no need to use marijuana as regularly as I have in the past as "medicine" for stress. I think, in many cases however, it would be a good substitute for a regimen of antidepressant medications. I am sure antidepressants have a useful purpose and are most often appropriately prescribed, but perhaps there are some cases that would be better served by an occasional dose of THC. Back when I first came to prison, I tried Elavil, Xanax and Valium to relieve stress. They all worked in varying degrees of effectiveness but I did not like the way they altered my personality. After a while they made me "feel" differently all the time. I even dreamed in a different way. It's hard for me to describe but those drugs caused a subtle alteration in my personality. I prefer pot. It's not habit-forming and it does not cause the kind of unwanted change other antidepressants do. Marijuana is good medicine.
 
great read moose. d'you know the guy personally?
 
How do the prisoners go about smoking weed? Lighting a match isn't going to get rid of the smell. :bong::thedoubletake:
 
A guy I knew in prison would smoke drugs by taking this piece of fire retardant cloth he smuggled in, placing it over his mouth and poking it a bit into his mouth then placing the drugs into the newly created pocket, resting in his mouth, and then basically draw the air from a lighter through the cloth. No pipe and that cloth rests flush against his clothes hiding it during searches.
 
No it's not that hard to get, it's there yes but for sure very expensive! 35 years ago when my encounter with gladiator school (prison life) the average oz on the street was about $50.... but could be turned into an easy $500 inside the prison walls. As a pin size joint is only a few crumbs of herb & usually it's mixed with tobacco, you hardly get a buzz. It will cost you $5 street cash (yes that's illegal to) or $10 in traded commissary goods. So unless you got some kind of good hustle to make some $$ u can't afford it anyway.
But if u do score then get caught by the man? Expect to be relocated to segregation (the hole) for about 60 days plus maybe get a year added to your lovely stay or maybe just lose your good time you've earned for early parole....then after the guards toss your cell upside down looking for other contraband, whatever legal possessions you had.....most will be gone to your fellow inmates, (this is prison duh!!) it will get traded or sold but gone forever!
Almost all drugs in prisons comes in by way of greedy guards trying to make some quick bucks but how can you trust them? Or it's brought in by friends thru the visiting system, which is a very high risk maneuver. It has to be double wrapped usually with balloons & then eewww nasty "stuck up someones ass" to get it inside, as EVERYONE gets strip searched after a visit!
Sorry to rant but the OP made prison life sound like a stoners paradise! Trust me you don't want to experience that life.
I'm now a MMJ card holder & living the good life in an anti-commie state, legally staying stoned for the rest of my life.
Peace to all :thumb: 420
 
Drugs are easy but dangerous to get while incarcerated.
All this comes from a friend who's done time.
In jails its harder to get such drugs prison is cake.
People try the balloon method, in which a friend brings food and with in the food is the weed which is inside a balloon, or something plastic.
RULE ONE (according to my friend): Never ever, ever, ever go to the drugs. Your in jail, the seller is not so trusting and will not get caught for your mistake, and if they do well sorry bout you. If you stay cool and just go with the flow they people with the drugs will come to you.
Example: If you find a inmate smoking lets say in a bathroom/outside(where ever), keep your mouth shut, and you did not see anything. Even if the smell is out in the open and everyone can smell it, don't act/say anything. They (drugs) will come to you.
Now, guards also can sneak it in but they will come to you not you to them.
Also lighting up is easy according to my friend.
Batteries, gum wrappers, matches, toilet paper, paper clips and other stuff can be used to light up, a match or lighter might be found eventually but yeah. Home made contraptions such as bowls, vaps and other wonderful things have been used to get the drug into ones system. I enjoyed reading this btw.
 
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