I came back from Amsterdam by coach and ferry as a long-haired, obviously wasted 18-year old, on a technically invalid passport, as the immigration officer pointed out I hadn't signed it. But they waved me through, and onto the coach back to London. The next day, unpacking, I found I'd accidentally brought home a gram each of Hawain sensi, Moroccan black and Thai. I'd just been so fucked that I completely forgot about them: my travelling companion had bailed at the last moment, after a car accident (no injuries, but he had to make a court appearance), and I was shy, travelling on my own, so I did nothing for three days but smoke in Cafes, eat blocks of hash, satisfy the munchies in the nearest Mickey D's (hey, I was eighteen), go back to the youth hostel and pass out. I'd never have smuggled intentionally - and am sure that if I'd known it was there, my anxiety would have been visible enough to ensure a search. They'd probably just have cautioned me, but I learned a valuable lesson - unless you're going to take the risk and are willing to face the penalties (and I suspect sniffer dogs are much more common now at Dover, this was 19 years ago), check your luggage carefully before leaving Holland. It's not worth getting a criminal record for a few grams of bud and solid...though it was nice to have an alternative, briefly, to shitty Central London ten draws that were a teenth at best.
Now it would be nice to have even those back: when I left London earlier this year, my choices were limited to travelling through the frequently sniffer-policed Clapham Junction station for pricey hydro strains (up to £200 an Oz for the highest grade stuff), or the lazy, local delivery option of £20 draws that were decent quality, but 1.5 - 2 grams at best. No wonder so many people are smoking pure synthetic cannibinoids or incense blends: even at headshops, they work out cheaper. Lacking sources up here, I've sometimes given into temptation and bought what I think is an AM-series blend - 15 minutes of skunked-out trippiness, then a half hour or so of a fuzzy and sedated stone, followed by a foggy, confused baseline. I can tell that it's toxic as fuck, and it's so short-acting that it's impossible to resist the urge to redose, but tolerance builds very quickly and you smoke to ever-diminishing returns. Now, after the 'Annihilation' warnings, which seem to have some basis in fact, I think I'm boycotting blends on general principle, leaving me with nothing green to smoke at all (sniff). For the first time in about 20 years, I'd actually come up negative on a tox screen for cannabis. I'm ashamed.
And going to the 'dam at the earliest opportunity.
