From: yshan@bnr.ca (Yogi Shan)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: DeKorne's "Psychedelic Shamanism"
Date: 12 Dec 1994 07:02:33 GMT
Message-ID: <3cgsi9$sj3@bmerha64.bnr.ca>


This book, published by Loompanics, has been mentioned here
a number of times.

I had the opportunity to briefly look it over last weekend.
Naturally, I headed straight for the chem section, a chapter 
entitled, "Extractions", or something.

Well, I must say that I am completely unimpressed with this
bozo Dekorne's abilities.  The information he presents is
riddled with errors and nonsense.  In fact, I have seen much
better stuff here in alt.drugs.  And you don't pay $20 for
alt.drugs.

An example is his declaring lemon juice to be acetic acid.
Bzzzzt! Thank you for playing.  It's citric acid.

My memory is hazy, but there were other more serious errors.
He suggests starting fluid as a source for ether, without
mentioning that the presence of lubricating oil in this stuff
makes it worthless for extractions.

He then fails to mention that if you extract with ether (and
many other solvents), you had better vent your sep funnel 
often due to the pressure buildup from the ether vapour.  
Much grief awaits those who don't.

With idiocies like this, one wonders if he's even done the thing
he claims.

Another recipe extracts the drugs out, calcines the extracted
plant material to ash, and adds the drug back for consumption.
If you think this is a useful procedure, I've got news for you.

His extractions all the standard acid-base extraction.  Jeremy
posted here (for free) a much better procedure that started
with a methanol extraction, followed by an acid-base extraction.
The initial methanol extraction reduces the volumes needed in
the acid-base extraction.

Loompanics makes its money selling junk like this.  A lot of
their stuff is amateurish garbage put out by crooks, phonies,
and posseurs.  But these are books about doing illegal
things, so who's going to complain, right?

Remember, a fool and their money are soon parted.


Yogi

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           "How much is enough, when your soul is empty,
            How much is enough, in the Land of Plenty,
            When you have everything you want,
            And still feel nothing at all,
            How much is enough?  Is enough?"

                                -- "How much is enough?"
                                    The Fixx

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