Wow. Reading about these pot “trips” gave me some flashbacks! lol. The thing about the clouds reminds me of a shroom trip I had. But back to weed. I also had an amazingly vivid “trip” off of weed. I was hanging out with some people in a friend’s college dorm room. I was still an inexperienced smoker back then, and the guy who had the weed said that it was supposed to be some really good stuff. Back then, I didn’t even know the difference between chronic and schwag.
Anyways, as I started to smoke, I noticed that every object was emanating a vibe - a personality, if you will. I looked at my hands, and the lines on my hands looked looked like a face, and by moving my hands, I could conjure very distinct facial expressions and emotions. And it could have been mental, but there was even an accompanying sound effect. Every expression seemed to send out a distinct tone and timbre. As my trip intensified, I found my imagination became extremely vivid. I looked at the people I was with, and I realized that I could create any kind of crazy cartoon-like effect that I pleased. I could improvise visuals with my mind. Later on, I remember lying down on the floor with my eyes closed, listening to Jimi Hendrix. I could see Jimi’s face clearly, singing along. I remember his face morphing into a lion, but still maintained Jimi’s look. Then, when the guitar solo started, I saw lightning beams coming out of Jimi’s mouth, and they were dancing in total frantic harmony with his guitar solo.
I’ll never forget that pot trip. I have never been able to duplicate it since. I’ve smoked all kinds of bud since then, and I’ve even hoped I’d get the same effect on srhooms or acid, but it’s never happened. I also know, though, that the pot wasn’t laced with any harder chemical hallucinogen like acid. I know what acid, shrooms, and mescaline are like. The duration of that trip was the same as any other pot trip. There was no restless, never-ending feeling i get with acid. The mentality was weed. If it was laced, I’d really like to know what it was! 
I guess, in a way, I’ve been “chasing the dragon” ever since that trip. I do find that I hallucinate very very mildly when I smoke now. I hardly ever do it any more, so I guess I’ve become very sensitive to it. I guess on that lucky day, I happened to be in the right place at the right time, smoking the right stuff with the right people. I think, a lot of times, once you unlock “the gateway”, you mentally feed off each other (or yourself), and a sort of cosmic synergy takes place. I’ve had shared hallucinatory flashback trips with people before when I was totally sober. If it had happened when i was by myself, I would have dismissed it as a wacky flashback. But the fact that it was a “shared” hallucination between myself and my brother, and both of us were totally sober, was enough to prove to myself that the trip is really in our “minds.” Drugs can act as catalysts, but sometimes the power of thought, focus, or conversation alone are gateways themselves. Anyways, I didn’t mean to write this much, but this thread triggered some cool memories!
I never intended my original post to end up like this. Consider this the last post for me in this topic. 
I gave an idea of my past to view; before and after. I was just thinking, do drugs have a permanent affect on what we see today? IF so, how bad?