Tuesday 14 March 2017

SNIBBO!


Yesterday I said that I never drank instant coffee, but that was not always the case. Around 1970 I found that the most economical way of ingesting canabis resin was to melt about an eighth of an ounce in a small cup of sweetened Nescafe then drink it down quickly. It was an ideal method of getting stoned when embarking on a train journey, or some other public thing where smoking it would lead to arrest.

During my last year at art school, I became the coordinator (not dealer) for the monthly dope purchace for a handful of my friends and fellow students. At the time, there was a Monty Python sketch which involved an advert for a product called 'Snibbo', and despite the many different presentations in the form of T.V. advertising, it was never actually specified what 'Snibbo' was, so it became the code word for our consignment of canabis.

I would recieve a parcel containing about half a pound of resin, and would announce its arrival by walking through the studios shouting "SNIBBO!" at the top of my voice. The teachers were completely ignorant of its meaning, as they only had Monty Python's adverts to go on.

I had been put in touch with a middle-aged woman in London who dealt in the stuff when she wasn't writing children's story books. She accepted cheques in the post, and the first one I sent her was returned with a note saying she did not understand what it was for. After she had checked me out, she would send large quantities of the drug by ordinary parcel post, and I would divide it out amongst my mates.

One day, I ordered half a pound of good African grass, and on the day it was due to arrive I heard our postman whistling to himself as he walked up the garden path.

The doorbell rang and I went to it and opened the door. To my horror, my London lady had simply put half a pound of grass into a flimsy shoebox and wrapped a bit of Selotape around it. There were bits of grass and seeds under the clear Selotape, and the postman was holding out a bit of paper for me to sign.

"This parcel fell apart in transit and we had to re-pack it. Please sign here to say you have received it in good order and there is nothing missing," he said with a friendly smile on his face.

For what seemed like an age, I stared at the evidence of my criminality, wondering what I should do and if I should say that there must be some mistake and this parcel was not for me. There was a lot of money involved, so I took the paper and signed it with a trembling hand, took the box into the kitchen and waited for the next ring on the doorbell. It never came.

Once again I am reminded of the good old days, when grass was proper grass and not the psychosis-inducing, genetically modified stuff that the next generation take for granted.

26 comments:

  1. I am surprised tgat you have lived so long

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  2. It takes a certain panache, what do you say ....that wonderful French phrase escapes me. Memory is going.

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  3. Never smoked, drank or injected any SNIBBO or it's other names or, for that matter, any of the other stuff that might be around of similar (or worse?) ilk. I sometimes wonder if I have missed out.

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    1. I sometimes wonder how my life would have been without taking so much LSD, but neither of us will know now.

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  4. Yes, it was a different day. So weak back in the day, we'd often call it prayer weed - you had to pray to get high. Today, it is so strong, one hit would be enough. There was hashish but never heard of the tar kind.

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    1. I don't do any of it now. I am saving it for when I contract a terminal disease, but even then I will not inject. I will smoke it as well. Canabis is very good for Altzeimer's, M.S. and any dementia. Heroin has always been good for pain relief - up to a point.

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  5. I wonder why the mailman was smiling like that? Did you weigh the weed? I'll bet a few grams were missing! Hahaha!

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    1. I just wrote a post for you, Tom. :)

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    2. I once introduced our local postman (in Kent) to LSD. He asked me to. I don't think he ever posted a letter again in his life. It was never for everybody - if anyone at all.

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  6. Ah, those were the days, Tom!

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  7. I have been a smoker of cigarettes and alcohol has passed my lips many times but I've never taken drugs .. I think I was a bit of a scardy cat in the 60's !! I used to go to The Marquee and many other clubs on a regular basis and not one person offered me any drugs. I must have been mixing with the wrong crowd !!! XXXX

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  8. I feel the same as Jacqueline, i always thought that no one smoked here in the 60's,i was wrong.

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    1. I know for a fact that many Israelis smoke weed and hashish constantly. It is a little habit picked up from the Arabs, and they seem to like it!

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    2. Now i know also, but than in the60's i did not, i smoked only cigarets:)

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  9. On my first visit to Morocco with Lady Magnon, we were sitting in a café when a stranger came over and dropped large lumps of resin into our glasses of Mint Tea. It didn't dissolve very well, so I took it out and dealt with it in a more traditional manner later. You encounter very strange people in Morocco.

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    1. That's not exactly spiking you - more of a 'have this one on me' situation.

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  10. In the summer I often look after a nearby greenhouse full of tomatoes when my friends are on hols......Last year I noticed a cannabis plant tucked away at the back... Kept it watered and never mentioned it ! I have never had any dealings with it myself. Alcohol has always been my drug of choice!!

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    1. Hiding amongst tomatoEs! Naughty! I have sampled almost everything but heroin and crack. I am not interested in crack (I've seen what it does to people) and I'm saving the heroin for a terminal illness. Alcohol has always been a steady stream through the landscape of my life, but thankfully never a river in full flood.

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  11. Ah' m'mmm, ah yes m'mm. I have lost the thread of what I was going to say young Tom - m'mm those were the days of lying on the Tor in warm sunshine in a very relaxed state.... Thanks for reviving my memories :-)

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    1. I spent a foggy night in the tower of the Tor on acid in 1970, with an American hippy couple for company. In the morning we awoke to see men in cloth caps looming through the mist and wondered what the hell they were doing. They were rabbiting with ferets!

      I went out and stood with my back to the rising sun to look at the great white cloud of mist obscuring Glastonbury, then experienced a phenomena which usually only Himalayan mountaineers see - an arc of rainbow was around the dark silhouette of my projected shadow like an Indian painting of a god.

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  12. I have never regretted my excursions into the mind altering natural stuff like shrooms on rare occasions.
    Which gave me some fantastic insights, as per seeing the energy bands of a greyhound and hearing the wee folk chattering on the banks of the Dartmoor rivers and a great many other experiences too which have enriched me.

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