Magic Mushroom Hunter - A guide to hunt liberty caps

So i found this guide/documentary that shows you how to find and identify the magic mushrooms in the UK (and Europe in general i suppose) by observing conditions,landscape and the local wildlife. Depending on where you live it may be usefull to you.

Tobacco - The stuff noone told you about

I love smoking, its really nice except for the cancer and dying part.

Still, this post is not about telling you not to smoke, this post is a fucking huge wall of text teaching you things you didn't know about Tobacco!

Tobacco is a misunderstood sacrament. It's not the nicotine you have to worry about, it's not whether your cigarette has a filter or not. These are illusive marketing ploys. miss-direction. The real concern is the added chemical poisons and radioactivity.

This is the kind of post that needs an index... so these are the topics i will talk about

• Nicotine helps memory, alzheimers, & cognitive degradation
• The tobacco species you smoke is not very good and there are other alternatives
• Nicotine is not the only good stuff, did you know about Harmalas?
• Freebase Nicotine
• Did you know you are a glue smoker?
• Radioactive Tobacco is common Tobacco
• Tobacco Shamanism
• E-Cigarettes
• General Industrial Tobacco Additives
• Some more Curiositys

Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects

We usually only consider the cannabinoids, but these have very complex reactions with several terpenes, terpenes are responsible for flavor and many other things in cannabis.

They help modulating the synthesis of different cannabinoids inside the plant and can be manipulated to create new strains with the desired cannabinoid ratio (high) and flavor

Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects

Ethan B Russo

Abstract

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been the primary focus of cannabis research since 1964, when Raphael Mechoulam isolated and synthesized it. More recently, the synergistic contributions of cannabidiol to cannabis pharmacology and analgesia have been scientifically demonstrated. Other phytocannabinoids, including tetrahydrocannabivarin, cannabigerol and cannabichromene, exert additional effects of therapeutic interest. Innovative conventional plant breeding has yielded cannabis chemotypes expressing high titres of each component for future study. This review will explore another echelon of phytotherapeutic agents, the cannabis terpenoids: limonene, myrcene, α-pinene, linalool, β-caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide, nerolidol and phytol. Terpenoids share a precursor with phytocannabinoids, and are all flavour and fragrance components common to human diets that have been designated Generally Recognized as Safe by the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. Terpenoids are quite potent, and affect animal and even human behaviour when inhaled from ambient air at serum levels in the single digits ng·mL−1. They display unique therapeutic effects that may contribute meaningfully to the entourage effects of cannabis-based medicinal extracts. Particular focus will be placed on phytocannabinoid-terpenoid interactions that could produce synergy with respect to treatment of pain, inflammation, depression, anxiety, addiction, epilepsy, cancer, fungal and bacterial infections (including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Scientific evidence is presented for non-cannabinoid plant components as putative antidotes to intoxicating effects of THC that could increase its therapeutic index. Methods for investigating entourage effects in future experiments will be proposed. Phytocannabinoid-terpenoid synergy, if proven, increases the likelihood that an extensive pipeline of new therapeutic products is possible from this venerable plant.

Check the PDF Link

Since i'm not an expert i took the liberty of copying this nice article regarding the above study from someone who is, read on!



While working at the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club I was able to teach some of the members about Black Pepper. While benefiting from the medicinal effects of THC, these patients suffered from bouts with anxiety while medicating. Most patients who have tried this simply took a few sniffs of the black pepper to receive an almost immediate effect. Others have reported that after chewing on pepper corns they felt relief within an hour, but that may be a delay most would seek to avoid. So how does this work? The Aug. 2011 British Journal of Pharmacology: Cannabinoids in Biology and Medicine, Part 1 includes numerous articles exploring the nature of the cannabis plants’ chemical dynamism. In the article “Taming THC,” scientists report having discovered more than a hundred terpenes that “may contribute meaningfully to the entourage effects of cannabis-based medicinal extracts.” Terpenes create the many scents of cannabis and are shared among the plant kingdom. Scientists explored how these aromatic oils synergize and mitigate the active cannabinoids contributing to an entourage effect.

Psychoactive Honey

Honey is sometimes used to preserve mushrooms, that got me wondering if there is any kind of honey that is psychoactive, perhaps if the bees pollinated psychoactive species? Here is what i found on my quest!

First i found this documentary

Pedicularis densiflora - Trip Report

It's been a while since i made a post about some obscure plant, this post is about Indian Warrior, judging by the name is should be interesting

About

Pedicularis densiflora, , known commonly as Indian warrior, is a perennial herb with stout, green or sometimes reddish or magenta stems and fern-shaped leaves, and long spikes of deep red to bright pink flowers with toothed petals.

Traditional Use 

All of the Pedicularis' are tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, powerful aphrodisiacs, and sedatives. They are often employed medicinally for muscle pain and tension, particularly back pain. Pedicularis are also used for their psychological effects, good for anger, fear, pain, anxiety. At least one Native American tribe is known to smoke the flowers of certain Pedicularis species for their medicinal effects and narcotic effects. These plants are a welcome addition to any smoking mixture both as flavor and a narcotic. Elephant's Head is claimed to have the best flavor but is the mildest, but every Pedicularishas an excellent taste. P. Densiflora being the most potent species.

  The buds and flowers are often added to tea blends for their color, flavor, and relaxing properties. It is also found to be useful in the treatment of insomnia, as well as having antioxidant properties

Seems a cool plant for using in herbal medicine.... What about smoking it? Seems like it could give a cannabis-like High. But there's no need to wonder, there are trip reports!

Cannabinoids - More than THC

THC is the most well known cannabinoid, but if you have tried marinol (pharmaceutical THC) you can see that the high is different from cannabis.

This is because Cannabis contains many other cannabinoids, most aren't psychoactive but have many medicinal proprieties, the concentration of these different cannabinoids and their synergy makes the high of each cannabis strain unique.

This Infographic will give you a little idea of some natural cannabinoids and their effects

LSH - Lysergic Acid Hydroxyethylamide

LSA is not a very interesting compound on itself, but it easily forms adducts, most aldehydes bind with it making a new compound, much more psychedelic! 

The reaction between LSA and acetaldehyde is tought to produce LSH (Lysergic Acid Hydroxyethylamide)

Psilohuasca

I had read before about mixing a MAOi with psychedelic substances to increase/change the effects, but never gave much tough to it apart from Ayahuasca, until now!

So, what is Psilohuasca?

It’s just a word creation which is used to describe a combination of Psilocybin/Psilocin containing mushrooms and a MAO inhibiting plant source.

It has no ancient tradition and could therefore be called neo-shamanistic


So why then add an MAOi? If you want to feel the true power, the full spectrum of wisdom of the mushrooms and don’t want to eat large amounts of them then the addition of an MAOi is the key.

Also the Harmine/Harmaline (the MAOi compound) does alter the experience and makes it more clear and it gives you the strength and inner peace to go through this intense experience more openly.

Using Mushrooms as Tryptamine Synth-Machines

There is a very interesting study that took place in Leipzig about 15 years ago. Jochen Gartz, a mushroom explorer, has done some fascinating studies with Psilocybe species by raising them on solid media containing strange tryptamines that are alien to the mushroom.

Apparently the enzymes that are responsible for the 4-hydroxy group of psilocin are indifferent to what it is they choose to 4-hydroxylate. He has taken things like DPT or DIPT and put them in the growth media and the fruiting bodies that came out contain 4-hydroxy-DPT or 4-hydroxy-DIPT instead of psilocin. In fact, he has a patent on the process. These active compounds are made by the mushroom so they really are natural and yet they never have been observed in nature. I'll give you even odds that if you put spores of a psilocybe species on cow droppings loaded with 5-MeO-DMT you would come out with mushrooms containing 4,5-HO-MeO-DMT.

But what kind of tryptamines can you shroom-synth?

List of Psychoactive Lichen

I was browsing some forums when i came across some talk about psychoactive lichens, nature really puts drugs in everything....

This post is mostly copy paste, but should have all the major info more or less organized, i tried to get pictures of most species, when in doubt i prefer to not post pictures, so forgive me for the missing ones. I highly recommend you read the forums on the bottom of this post

Parmelia family syn. Xanthoparmelia

Whole family active as sedatives?

They all contain usnic acid, an antimicrobial that has been used as a weight-control medication. Usnic acid is toxic to elk, and in humans it is reported to induce liver toxicity after prolonged oral use and/or very large doses.

Best bet would be to find what the active substances are (can we remove the usnic acid?), and make an extract - "lichen hash". Here's several articles on usnic acid.

Parmelia conspersa

Traditionally used by the Pima and Papago of South Arizona and North-West Mexico.

Ginkgo reports that the effects are similar to cannabis, although not quite. Effects lasts maybe two hours, and not very potent.

there are reports that it is highly active and on par with good cannabis

Contains usnic acid, salazinic acid, stictic acid and norstictic acid.

The Dermorphin Frog

Most people know about bufus alvarius, a 5-meo-dmt containing frog, but what about Phyllomedusa bicolor? This guy almost get's me high just from looking at him!

This frog contains Dermorphin, Dermorphin is a hepta-peptide first isolated from the skin of South American frogs belonging to the genus Phyllomedusa. The peptide is a natural opioid that binds as an agonist with high potency and selectivity to mu Opioid receptors. Dermorphin is about 30–40 times more potent than morphine but theoretically may be less likely to produce drug tolerance and addiction (due to its high potency).

Marijuana and alcohol - To mix or not to mix

Most of us mix alcohol and marijuana, actually, we mix alcohol with everything most of the times... I would say that's a foolish thing to do, but let's use science to formulate an opinion!

In the first study data suggests that ethanol may increase the absorption of THC resulting in an increase in the positive subjective mood effects of smoked marijuana. 

So you get higher and faster than with cannabis alone! If that's desired and as long as you know the risks is a good enough reason to mix both substances. But remember both have very different effects, and while alcohol potentiates the THC high, you will also feel alcohol effects.

The second study found that adolescent rats under the influence of ethanol and THC were less likely to explore than those under the influence of either ethanol or THC alone. The same study also found that adult rats given the ethanol/THC combination had more trouble remembering new objects compared with adult rats given either drug alone

Sea DMT - Psychedelic Sponges

I found an interesting article on sea sponges containing high concentrations of 5-bromo-DMT as well as some human bioassays ("trip reports") from those who have tried synethtic 5-bromo-DMT. Their reports are incredibly interesting. I wonder if you can take it orally, or if not, orally with an MAOI?

Some speculate this is perhaps the reason behind the hallucinogenic fish poisoning reports from the Sarpa sarpa species back in 2006.

Prepare yourself for a very interesting read!

Dendrobium Nobile - Side Effects

Sometime ago i made a post about Dendrobium Nobile, the source of that info also has a trip report about bad side effects, it would be irresponsible not to share that info, this is a good example of why you shouldn't do drugs when you are already sick, specially unknown ones. I Think this report does a good job on harm reduction advice, read it carefully

Here is an hypothesis of what might have happened:

"The symptoms of a cold are caused by the immunitary system fighting the infection. Now some of the compounds in the orchid have immunomodulatory effects. Maybe I ingested a lot of these compounds along with the psychoactive ones and they caused a strong reaction from the immune system fighting the infection and I am currently experiencing a hyperactive immune system."

Dendrobium nobile - A psychoactive Orchid with effects similar to Cannabis

Disclaimer: There is practically no research and very few experiences with consumption of this plant for psychoactive purposes. Nobody knows if there are negative side or long term effects. Always be cautious, minimize risks and use common sense, if you want to experiment with this plant.

Updated warning: Possible side effects, please read this post before experimenting!

Dendrobium noblie is an orchid used for ornamental purposes. Due to its relatively easy cultivation, the reliable flowering of many big, beautiful blossoms that will keep fresh for a long time and in virto mass propagation, it is one of the orchids commonly available in flower shops, stores and garden centers.

But the plant can also facilitate psychoactive effects that in some parts resemble that of cannabis. The plant contains several terpene alkaloids: Dendrobin, Denbinobin, Dendramin, Dendrin, Dendrobin, Dendroxin, Nobilin, Nobilonin and several derviates. Nobilin is the first alkaloid discovered in an orchid. As far as I know, there is no information which compound contributes to the effects. In traditional chinese medicine, the herb is used for medicinal purposes in form of a tea made from dried flowers and leafes. Side effects are unknown for traditional use. Research indicates that several compounds, including polysaccharids, sesquiterpenes, bibenzyl derivates and fluoerons have a potential antioxidant, antimutagenic, antitumor and immunomodulatory activity.

Discovering S. Divinorium's Cousins - Salvia Superba

Forget the cases of dumb teenagers doing salvia divinorum and filming for youtube, there is a lot to be told about this plant, but before that, did you know that many of Salvia Divinorum's cousins are also psychoactive?

Most of times the alkaloids responsible for the high haven't even been determined, there are however some trip reports scattered around the web, in this post i'll leave you the only report i could find about Salvia Superba, if you have more info please share in the comments!