So this guy I know, whom I'll call "Joe," got busted years ago for selling sheets outside of a Dead show, in Colorado I think. They took him to the pokey, and put him in with a guy who'd just been busted for meth. They got to talking, and told each other what substance they'd gotten busted for.
"Sheets" are sheets of paper, maybe 1' square, and perforated into roughly 1/4" squares that can be torn off. Each square has one dose of acid, whatever that is. Each sheet has at least a couple-hundred squares I think, but I haven't seen one since the Dead were still alive.
If you were going to a show in a new town, you'd know you were getting close, because when you got to the last few miles of the main road leading to the venue, people would be on the side of the road, waving colorful handfuls of paper around, yelling "SHEETS!" It was wild. Maybe that's how a few of them got busted.
Sheets usually have amazing artwork, as you can see if you Google them. People collect them, and they even make dummy sheets, which contain no product, but look just like the originals, some printed in the same batch, which is interesting. I doubt I'd collect much drug paraphernalia, maybe roach clips, for old times' sake, but I wouldn't mind having a coffee table book with some of the artwork from sheets.
They'd never tried each other's drug of choice, and were in fact frightened of them. Meth and acid are night and day, except that both can make you hallucinate. Joe probably already knew all he cared to know about meth, but the other guy was curious about acid, and had some questions.
All he knew was that it made you "see shit," and he wasn't too sure about that, but he wanted to know about effects, duration, cost, etc. Joe told him a little about it, but it was probably like trying to describe Origami to a fish, as someone once said. He said that it wasn't a typical "party drug." The last thing Joe tried to do was sell him on the idea of trying it. Some people are better off not knowing what that deal is. I'm not promoting the use of ANY drugs at ANY time, but if you're afraid to take a psychedelic, then don't.
They got to the subject of cravings, addiction, withdrawals and such, and that's where the paths of those two drugs really diverged. Meth guy was starting to jones, and was saying that he wished he could take a few hits, and he assumed that it was the same situation for Joe. "Don't you wish you had a hit of acid right now?" he asked Joe. I'm sure Joe at least grinned, and he said "That's the last thing I'd want right now."
The dude was incredulous. The idea of a drug that technically doesn't have any craving, withdrawal or addiction issues, and one that you don't take every day, was completely alien to him. "Really?" he said. "Yep" said Joe. "You mean, if this whole wall right here was covered in hits of acid, you wouldn't take one?" "Nope" said Joe. That cracked me up. I could picture a prison cell, wallpapered with sheets of acid.
Oddly enough I'm pretty sure that the charges for acid are much worse than for meth. That's strange, considering the long-term effects of each. Meth, along with coke, heroin, PCP and a few others, is on my list of what I call the "stupid drugs," and probably #1. I have to say here that I completely disagree with the idea they promote in most of the traditional rehab programs, that says basically that a drug is a drug, and no drug is worse than another.
That's a joke. Besides the fact that you can't OD on weed, as much as you might like smoking it and hate running out, you're about a trillion times less likely to hold up a 7-11 to get money for a dime bag of weed than any of the others. While I'm ranting away, forget what they say about reefer completely. The true "gateway drug" is ALCOHOL, period.
Anyway, meth guy got a little education (Just say No), and that had to be an interesting conversation, all things considered. Joe knew I'd really get off on that story, and I appreciate that. Don't do drugs!
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