Ben, I didn't realize you have tried/used cannabis and written about the experience. I'll read that story today. I made the mistaken assumption that you were thinking of the ridiculous depictions used in television shows and in movies.

I use cannabis because it's one of the few things that calms my nervous system and helps enhance the effects of the anti-seizure medications that I take three times a day. Cannabis doesn't get me 'high' and I don't like smoking it but vape pens didn't work for me, although I know people who prefer them, and I've tried edibles but those do affect my thinking and the effect lasts far too long for my liking. So, it's smoking it for me. It doesn't alter my mind, simply calms the 'white matter' (the nervous system, rather than gray matter) and that's what I need it to do. I drank alcohol when I was younger but haven't had a single drink since the mid-1990s and have no desire or need to start again. If I can find a vape pen that doesn't get too hot and irritates my lips, I'll switch to that but for now, at least, I'll have to keep putting smoke into my lungs.

And I like the word "entheogen"; I've not heard it before and looked it up. But TM meditation gets me the same "ego dissolution" and that avoids taking yet another drug, legal or otherwise, and I'm all for taking as few drugs as possible. You've told me something I didn't know, and I thank you for that.

Have a great day and I'll be smoking cannabis again tonight and every night until something that works better comes along.