Global Ganja Report

As you walk towards Foss Hill (often called The Hill, or Foss), a miniature hill at Wesleyan University, you are greeted by the prestigious Olin Library on your left and by rugged Hewitt (one of the many dorms on campus) on your right. Both buildings give the impression of a well known academic space. As you reach Foss and sit down amongst the huge crowd, you watch as some students do homework on their blankets (picnic style), other students play a hodgepodge of pick up sports on the foreground, and of course, the large majority of these educated pupils inhale the pungent smoke of good ole marijuana.

In the fall time in September, when the academic year begins at Wes, students from all four classes form groups across the hill and share pot in all kinds of ways: some roll joints, some roll blunts, others use colorful bowls and the brave ones straight up use a bong. As fall progresses and succumbs to the harshness of the cold winter, upperclassmen (Juniors and Seniors) retire to the comfort of their campus homes to smoke weed, while underclassmen (Freshman and Sophomores) have to pass the peace pipe as they struggle outside with the icy wind striking any uncovered part of the body.

Sadly for these underclassmen, their campus housing is usually located at the heart of campus (where campus safety regularly checks and sometimes busts students for smoking pot), while the upperclassmen enjoy the privilege of living on the outskirts of campus where it feels like anything goes. Fortunately, even the worst winters have to give way to the beauty of spring. As the outside temperatures rise, Wesleyan students come out of their hiding spots, dressed in bright colors that paint the hill in abstract patterns. Once again, Wes comes as alive as it was in the early stages of fall: students share ganja, the skunk-like smell in the air forcibly hits your nostrils; all the while tunes from past and present blast from boom boxes or from live bands on the hill, making the scene on the hill a beautiful melody of colors, sounds and smoke.

Photo by the Mad Pothead