I didn't write this story to be preachy, but it was way messed up

This started out like any other afternoon my freshman year - which meant I was heading out to my hang with my smoking buddies and get nicely toasted. I say "smoking buddies" because we weren't best friends or anything, just basically some dudes that got together to get stoned and chill. The spring semester was on its way out, and the weather was great, so I walked the mile or so to their place. When I walked in, they had some Pink Floyd on the stereo and were already passing the bowl around.

I took my place in the circle as one of them re-packed it, and he said to "watch out 'cause this is some really good shit." I just figured, ‘OK, whatever.’ I hadn't had any kind bud in ages, and I was looking forward to a nice buzz. So, I smoked my portion and we all began chillin' to “The Wall.” Well, I had no idea what I was getting into.

Within minutes I was way beyond stoned, and really getting into the music. Even though I didn't have previous experience with any drugs other than weed, I started to get the suspicion that I was tripping. This felt different than any buzz I ever copped off a bowl. A short while later, I got hit by the dizzies and closed my eyes, and I noticed colorful 3-D geometric patterns on the inside of my eyelids. Right then, one of them asked if I was feeling it yet. I replied with, "what the hell did we just smoke?" and he just giggled. So I thought, ‘screw it, I'll just groove with it and enjoy.’

About an hour later, I had to leave for my dorm because they had to go to class. As we were leaving, one of them noticed I was having trouble with the stairs, and he laughed and asked if I was all right. I nodded yes, even though I was getting more twisted by the minute. We left the apartment, and they headed to class as I headed for my dorm--how they dealt with class on this shit I'll never know. Trying to make my way back, I noticed my vision wasn't normal (you know, like a continuous image). Instead, it was like a movie with a bad frame rate - my vision was switching back and forth between a still image and blackness. This was happening really fast, like multiple times a second. It looked like the whole world was a stop-motion film.

I figured I was too fried to walk all the way back, so I sat on a bench to wait for the bus. I must have looked how I felt, because people walking along the sidewalk past the bus stop were saying stuff like, "Man, he must be seriously fucked up" or "Dude, look at his eyes." Of course, in the state I was in, those remarks made me paranoid, so I ditched the bus stop and started to walk it. By now, I couldn't figure out crosswalks or intersections anymore. All I remember is waiting until I couldn't see any cars in both directions before crossing the several streets between my dorm and me. At this point I must have blacked out, because the next thing I knew I was in my dorm room, completely buried under my comforter and covered in sweat. It was still daylight, and I got up to look at the clock to see what time it was, but the numbers kept shifting. So, giving up on the clock, I re-buried myself and tried to sleep it off. That didn't work out so well.

Instead, for lack of a better description, I got locked in my own mind. I was in my own weird world, and I didn't know who or where I was. I do know that it sucked. I couldn't see or hear my room, and I couldn't feel my bed. I felt like I was falling, and I was feeling intensely every negative emotion at once. This lasted, or felt like it lasted, for several hours. At some point, I passed out.

When I woke up, eleven hours had passed since I smoked up and even though I wasn't tripping anymore, I still felt pretty messed up. The next day, I went over to ask my "smoking buddies" about what it was that we smoked the day before. They just laughed and refused to talk about it, so I left. I stopped hanging out with them after that. To this day, I still don't know for sure what I got dosed with, but I can take a guess. To top that, that bad trip ruined pot for me completely. Since then, every time I've tried to get stoned I always got really paranoid, and usually end up having pretty bad panic attacks. By the way, to anyone who's reading this: I didn't write this to say, "Don't get stoned" or any preachy crap like that. I just figured it might be an interesting story.