Eat Space Brownies

Space brownies are basically brownies laced with marijuana. They are supposed to be able to 'send you to space' when you eat them. I first saw one in Amsterdam, the Weed Capital of Europe. I wanted to buy it then but they asked for my passport, which I didn't have with me at the time.

In 2017, I went to Vang Vieng in Laos with my partner, and we came across a few shops claiming to sell 'happy' things, from happy garlic bread to happy omelette. I was a bit skeptical, because we once got cheated in Indonesia. But then I saw a customer passed out on the couch, so I took that as a good sign.

I ordered the brownie. It was a thin flat piece of cake, which I took back to my hotel room.

 

It tasted very bland and dry. I took a few bites, waited several minutes, but felt nothing. So I gobbled the whole thing up. The thing with space brownies is, you can't really tell how much weed they have put in. You won't feel the high right away as you would with a joint. So you won't know if you have eaten too much until it's too late.

The effect only started to kick in after about 1 hour. The first thing I noticed was that my brain had slowed down, and other parts of my body had overridden it. For example, my arm would suddenly jerk and it would take a few seconds before my brain registered what had happened. Then my lower jaw started to move on its own, from side to side. I recorded myself on camera to see if it was really moving or if I had just been imagining it. (Sorry it looks like a horror movie.)

We were watching TV in the dark. It was an animation, but every few seconds or so, the characters on screen would look so real that I almost wanted to reach out my hands and touch them. And then they'd turn into cartoons again.

My heart started beating so fast and loud that I could feel it reverberating through my entire body. My breath got shallower. I had to put a hand under my nose to make sure I was still breathing.

I lay back on the bed and closed my eyes. I saw hundreds of colorful geometrical shapes and numbers dancing and throbbing. There was a slideshow of random images of postal stamps and birds and the Eiffel Tower. And zebras. I remember seeing a lot of zebras grazing in a field. And then it transformed into a series of alphabets, starting with Z for Zebras, Y for Yaks, and so on, till we got to A for Apples. I wondered if this was what happiness felt like, and why, of all things, it had to give me alphabet lessons.

I tried to sleep. I was scared that I might start hallucinating and do something that might harm myself or other people. (I had already stashed away sharp and potentially dangerous objects before eating the brownie). But I also wondered, if I slept, would I forget to breathe? Would my body go into a shock? Would my heart beat so fast that it goes into cardiac arrest? Has anyone ever OD'd on weed? I wished I had someone more experienced to calm me down and tell me I was going to be okay.

I had my partner with me, but I didn't want to freak her out (she was already freaking out over the effect of the mushroom shake on her), so I just lay there on the bed, not daring to move a muscle. I don't know if I could actually move if I wanted to. The brownie had sent me into some sort of paralysis.

Some few minutes later, I fell asleep. And I woke up the next morning feeling as though nothing ever happened. I had expected a hangover or an upset stomach, but there was nothing. So that's what's awesome about it. 

Would I try it again? Ya, maybe in Amsterdam, but I will make sure to take it slow. Lesson learned.