DENVER — Despite living in a fully legal state, having no roommates, and being gifted a climate-controlled humidor for his cannabis, 36-year-old Denver resident Evan Crandall still insists on hiding his weed in the same “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” DVD case he did in high school as a reminder of days gone by, annoyed friends report.
“Look, I know it’s legal and I know an RA isn’t going to search my room like I’m in college,” Crandall said, popping open the plastic case with the reverence of a priest opening their bible. “But there’s just something sacred about hiding your weed like it’s contraband. It makes the whole experience feel risky, which makes the high better, I swear. Like you’re 17 again and your mom might walk in, even though my mom is now texting me the weed coupons she uses.”
Friends say Crandall’s habit isn’t charming so much as inefficient.
“Every time we want to smoke, we have to wait while he rummages through a tote of old movies,” said longtime friend Sharon McHale, who has smoked with Crandall since he bought the DVD in 2003. “Then he pulls it out like it hides the One Ring, but the weed is always dried out, crushed to dust, and tastes like plastic. I’m like, just use a jar, man. But no. He insists. It doesn’t even make sense why he only has the middle movie of a trilogy, and then also has the Extended Edition Blu-Ray box set right next to it.”
Experts have studied this type of paranoid nostalgia since marijuana started being legalized in recent years.
“We see this kind of behavior a lot. When something that was once taboo becomes normalized, some people crave the performative thrill of doing something wrong,” said Dr. Naomi Stevens, a sociologist at CU Boulder. “It’s nostalgia mixed with identity reinforcement. It’s less about getting high and more about feeling of youthful rebellion, like hiding Playboys under your mattress or putting Slayer CDs in Creed jewel cases.”
At press time, Crandall had reportedly texted his old dealer to purchase a bag of ditch-weed because, “it just hits different when it’s skunky and mostly seeds and stems.”
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