Getting Stoned

What would a “coming of age” novel from the 1970’s be if there weren’t some kind of drug use?  So it is with my book.  Marijuana makes itself known at three junctures.  Roger’s reaction shows a steady, though sometimes reluctant, learning curve.  As the stoner dudes in western Iowa pull out a joint and Roger knows he’s confronted with a decision, he at first says no—reminiscing about his lone, mostly negative drug experience with hash two years before at the high school, behind the football bleachers. But since hippie freakazoid Otto also refuses, throwing off the genteel balance in the car, Roger accepts. That restores the energy. He claims he feels nothing afterward, but images dancing in his head about music, Amy, and “the number of revolutions it takes a wheel to go 3,000 miles” defy his conclusion.  In Colorado with the Indian girls, having a pow-wow in the middle of an open field, he is more interested in corralling Alvah for a roll in the hay than smoking pot with a genuine peace pipe. Finally, on the way back home in California (pages 280-282), with newfound friends Detroit and Paul McCartney, Roger partakes in a “proper” stoner experience, being fully integrated with the other dudes, during which he senses being connected to “Eternal Source Energy.” These experiences are a far cry from the heroin use described by William S. Burroughs in novels like Junky and Naked Lunch.  There’s no cocaine use nor pills. Drugs are around, but Roger sets his limit with a few tokes of weed.