He held the joint away from him while he applied a match to the twisted end and waited for the paper to burn off. So, when after a few forays with Benzedrine, Neal introduced me to marijuana-which he called “tea” and gradually became known as “pot”-my faith in him overcame these grim forebodings. Although I had no notion of what it was all about, they made the intended impression on my innocent mind. In spite of my isolated existence from any “street” knowledge, films introduced me to the horrors of the “Devil’s Weed.” These films are now a delight to those who have discovered their inaccuracy. At that time, alcohol was the accepted drug and considered right and proper-as it still is today along with car-exhaust fumes. My experiences in life with chemical substances that change one’s consciousness without the benefit of one’s own will began in my teens in the 1940s. In honor of the anniversary of Carolyn Cassady’s birth on on April 28, we’re republishing it below. Portions of this story are excerpted from her book, Off the Road, and were published in the November, 1994 issue of High Times. Carolyn Cassady (1923-2013), wife of Neal Cassady-the legendary beat-generation hero immortalized as Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and later in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test -explains her husband’s relationship to “tea” and how pot affected her.
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