Shannon's Journal Discussion

[Shannon]

The result is that I'm allergic to things like... rum. Marijuana.

I wonder how you found that out

I found out I am allergic to marijuana on New Year's Eve of 2000 when I spent that evening with a couple of guys who were smoking it quite heavily around me, in a small closed up RV they were traveling in, and I quickly ended up on my back in the driveway wondering if this incredible pain in my lungs meant I was dying. I verified it by virtue of having had a number of friends in the past who smoked marijuana. Various situations ranging from having been exposed to the smoke that was on the clothes of the person after they smoked it, to spending the night at a friend's house and discovering (at about 3 am, after having an ever more difficult time breathing) that they were actually growing it in their closet, made me very aware that I was allergic specifically to marijuana. I am incredibly sensitive to it. Basically, it makes my lungs burn and become inflamed, and start producing mucus to protect themselves, and I cough my brains out and effectively begin drowning in my own lungs... I've never seen the point in doing drugs, personally. I don't like how even prescription painkillers and stuff like No Doze affects me. So marijuana has never been something I used.

Rum, I discovered an allergy to at a party I attended I guess 8 years ago now, where I ended up unable to get off the couch all night. It is severely irritating to my digestive system, and the results are not fun if you catch my meaning... I also know I am allergic to it because it is the only alcohol I ever had that I cannot avoid a hangover from by drinking enough water while ingesting it, and because while making a particular cologne I use some rum in, I always start coughing and hacking when I smell it. So it irritates my lungs as well, which is a pretty good sign of allergy for me. Not a problem, since I don't drink, and I can hold my breath while working with it as a perfumery component.