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The New |
We Weren't Really Paying AttentionA San Pedro experiment Substances: Trichocereus When I woke up this morning, I heard a purple people-eater singing outside my window. It sounded really neat, but imagine my surprise when I wrote down the notes he was singing, transformed them into letters (middle C is c, count up from there and wrap around) and discovered the following message:
Begin Fictional Account K. and F. decided to do a little (self-)experiment with San Pedro cactus. We peeled and despined about 6 feet, froze it to break down the cell walls, and sliced it. We then dehydrated it over low heat and blended the dried segments into a powder. The powder was extracted with 1% aqueous acetic acid and washed with methylene chloride -- a fairly disgusting procedure. The aqueous layer was decanted and dried somewhat in a 200 F oven to give about 3-4 cups of thoroughly vile-tasting liquid, which we split and drank. Mmmm-mm goood. I guess we have strong stomachs, because we didn't throw up, although we did partake of a bit of anti-nausea herb at the beginning. Effects were minimal (Level 1 at best), beginning about 2 hours after ingestion and lasting maybe 8 more (we weren't really paying attention). The trip resembled LSD far more than mushrooms, although it had less of the upleasant crystalline sense of artificial enlightenment that acid can sometimes have. As soon as it's legal, I'd love to try it again--with better results, I hope.
Comments: * Effects were so minimal that I have to assume that our extraction procedure sucked. I speculate that we lost a fair amount of the mescaline to the methylene chloride -- mescaline acetate is maybe a bit big to be terribly water-soluble. * The cacti have a tough, woody ring around the core. Slice around it and hollow out the middle, then dry everything down. * A centrifuge juicer, as described in the Lycaeum extractions FAQ would have been a much better way to do this. * Perhaps hydrochloric acid rather than vinegar? Should be more water-soluble with a smaller counterion.
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