Observations placeholder

Testing the Homebrew  Wild Lettuce (L. virosa extract)  by Psi Locybe EROWID

Narr, I've been semi-frustrated by my crude extracts of the lactuca (we have various stages of apparent scariola-virosa hybridization rampant, locally, so scads of pounds is not an issue)... an effective inebriant at 5-10% (estimated) potency 'black crud,' but for the sake of whatever gods have a fondness in their heart for mad alchemists, I simply *must* do better - not only is professional pride involved, but I've a friend with a signifigantly broken ribcage... s/he deserves the right to laugh unfettered...

Thus it was that I ended up with several grams lactucin freebase, and more on the way... (for those of you desperate to know the details, I believe there's a fair bit of detail on acid-base extractions out... look around. I use baking soda, USP - the plant already took care of the acid phase - and replace the ether layer with filtration, 'cause I'm a poor alchemist... thanks be to our tweak(TMX)-addicted culture that coffee filters are a half-cent a piece!)

Spooning forth a little bit of the fine-grained mud (whitish crystals + brownish organic tea = beige mud) into a small ice-cream sample spoon reserved for alchemical purpouses, I kick the rest back into the wash (h2o)... an alchemist must have *some* pride. (the damn things came out looking the same... grr...)... run over to my friends house, and came back disappointed... ::sigh:: s/he can live with their pain; me, I use the crude (sap) to re-set broken and dislocated joints...

So I load up the pipe with my small chunk 'o crystals (they dried to 'crack rock' consistency), 'cause I'm thinking 'hey, just how *do* I know I've got the right part? This *could* just be undissolved baking soda and a few vitamins and amino acids, eh?'

Curiosity is often a fatally overpowering force, for alchemists. ;)

... and so I take the hit. It's small - this *is,* after all, the amount that will sit comfortably on the very edge of an ice-cream sample spoon - and vaporizes near-instantly.

Pheow!

By the time I breathe out, I'm damn near under; grab the knife, bubba, I won't notice. It has a similarity to the 'I am in a completely different world than the world I'm in' feeling of carbogen (which I've never had *with* the oxygen - empty 2ltr), but is, naturally, it's own thing...

... and as the peak subsides, I discover that a few milligrams concentratedly rushing to the brain is signifigantly different than a few milligrams diluted through 160 lbs... it's still the same set-back, watching the world sensation, but there's a *lot* less of it. 'course, it sticks around longer than the inhalation peak does, up to about 6 hours in my sum-total experience... narcosis (or was it narcolepsy) sets in after the first 20-40 minutes...

Speaking of sum-total experience, based on such and 'Legal Highs by Adam Gottlieb' (how poetic, a treatise on the power ordained unto various plants by a person whose name translates 'the love of God.'), findable here, I surmise that it is lactosol and/or lactucic acid which is the euphoriant (that's *high-dose* euphoriant) in this plant. Lactucin is, apparently, just a narcotic analgesic whippet. ;)

So, to all 'yall who say that 'opium lettuce is near-bunk/bunk,' I'm just going to have to laugh at you... yeah, uncultivated ditchweed is pretty 'mild,' 'till you isomerize the oil - or spend 30 years on a breeding project... cut it to crystal, dawg, and try to use for bonafide medical purpouses only... it won't take a full bowl for do-it-yourself-home-surgery (note : I neither recommend nor am I responsible for lettuce-whacked individuals carving themselves or others to bits. In fact, I'm responsible for nothing.)