More often, feelings of paranoia are experienced less

Sometimes when I'm stoned, I get bad feelings when I go out with certain people. I get very self-conscious, which is unusual for me. In high school I was a real individual, and would even wear crazy clothes just to draw attention to myself. Now, if I even wear makeup I feel self-conscious. It makes me think that people are staring at me, or talking about me, and I get nervous and feel upset.
    I think I probably create these feelings myself. Most of the time I find this out after I'm stoned, when the feelings have vanished. I've got a certain amount of normal paranoia, but when I'm stoned, it becomes intense. When I'm high, anything can make me paranoid.

    A Boston poet experiences another version of the same problem:

Sometimes when I'm stoned, I have the feeling that other people are spotting me for a phony, a deceiver. I play a lot of games imagining that they don't know I'm stoned, and I have occasionally ventured into the scary experience of being stoned in the presence of people who I definitely don't want to know. That's a danger I sometimes even court. But more and more, I think people are spotting me as stoned when I'm not aware that they are, so it may be time to cut down on my smoking.

    Another smoker explains why he smokes only with close friends or when he is alone. The source of his feelings of paranoia is external rather than personal. He lives in a small town and is aware that marijuana is not accepted by his colleagues and acquaintances:

I'm concerned that somebody I work with or know will see me stoned in public. They might think I was a "pothead" or "on drugs" and draw all sorts of conclusions. I know that when I see somebody who is stoned, it doesn't offend me at all. But if I'm the one who is stoned in public, I'm not so sure that other people will be so tolerant. I'm worried that they will label me, or judge me adversely.

    Another common fear among smokers is that marijuana will lead to a loss of control. A New Jersey man is especially concerned about being alert in the event of a sudden emergency. Although he understands that when he is high he is still connected to his "normal" consciousness, he is anxious nonetheless about whether the "ladder" he used to get up will be available should he suddenly and unexpectedly need it to climb back down:

I feel incapable of dealing with a serious problem when I'm high, and I worry that I could make a wrong decision that could result in serious injury or death, and which would make me feel guilty for the rest of my life. I know that I would blame myself for being stoned, that I would feel that if I hadn't been stoned, I would have done the right thing. When I first started smoking, I didn't have these worries. They developed over time, as I became more mature and more responsible.

    Some smokers fear other kinds of loss of control. For the receptionist, the fear that she would lose control of her emotions once took on a physical manifestation:

We were sitting around the kitchen table, me and some friends, sharing a few joints. I had been feeling bad to begin with, and smoking made me feel worse. Suddenly I became frightened that somebody was threatening my relationship with my boyfriend, and I felt that I couldn't control the jealousy and the fear inside of me.
    I felt myself getting dizzy. My head was spinning, and I couldn't focus on anything. I was sweating, and my hands were shaking. I felt nauseous, and I couldn't think straight.
    I began to feel more frightened than I already was, and I freaked out. When I tried to get up and walk around, my legs were like rubber. I felt my body was rising out of itself, and I couldn't control it or talk myself out of it. This lasted about five minutes. I don't think anybody in the room knew I was feeling these things, but I felt then as though they were all watching me.