In honor of the Best of Denver, our stoner picked two of his top questions from last year. Have a fresh one? Send it to [email protected] or call 303-293-2222.
Dear Stoner: If a mosquito bites you while you're smoking a joint, will it get high?
Buggin' Out
Dear Buggin': What a classic stoner musing! I can remember sitting poolside with a bong in college, wondering the same thing.
Sadly for the mosquito, there's no buzz to be had out of the active THC in your blood. According to a 2001 British study conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals, insects are among the few beings on earth that don't have cannabinoid receptors. Birds, fish, mussels and even sea urchins, for example, all have cannabinoid receptors.
But while we're on the subject of bug inebriation, it turns out they can get drunk — though probably not from sipping on your blood. Studies have shown that insects can handle as much as 25 times the amount of alcohol, by weight, than humans can before feeling the effects. What's also interesting is that bugs, like people, can be more aggressive toward one another when drunk. If only they'd get high instead.
Dear Stoner: I'm a daily puffer, and I've got a drug test coming up that I probably would fail just by breathing on the test cup. Any advice on how to pass a pee test?
Uri Nell
Dear Uri: Your best option is to give up smoking herb for up to a month before the test, if that's possible. No, we wouldn't like it, either, but you do what you have to in order to earn a living these days. Your second-best option is to get a synthetic urine kit from a local head shop. They come with pre-packaged pee and a portable hand-warmer to help get the pee up to temperature; some even come with a fake wang so that you can actually "pee" into the cup. QuickFix and TestClear have the best reviews online, and numerous friends have used one of these to pass everything from simple pre-employment tests to Department of Transportation screenings. (Whatever you do, though, don't go for one of the detox kits. All they have you do is chug a Gatorade-like drink along with two gallons of water, supposedly so your pee will be diluted enough to pass.) The third, last-ditch option is to smoke a quarter right before you go in and hope that the levels are so high that the test is tossed on a technicality. That, or find a job in the marijuana industry. I assure you that employers there don't care.
