Newsgroups: alt.drugs

        recently i had a day off from work and decided to spend it
experimenting with mandrake root.  Mandrake contains scopalamine,
which is (along with atropine) also found in thorn apple/belladonna.
both were commonly used in 'witches potions' to induce out of body
experiences, so my plan was to try to leave my body.  these drugs
are known to cause some unpleasant (but, i thought, hallucinogenic)
effects.

        well, because a housemate had tried mandrake last year at a
certain dosage with no effects noticable enough to count, i decided
to make a much stronger tea with it.  it is mind-bogglingly bitter,
and because i mixed moleasses with it for sweetness, the tastes are
associated for me and i can't stand even the smell of molasses anymore.
i made about 1.5-2 pts of tea with around 6 tablespoons of mandrake.
drank a bunch, nothing.  drank another glass.  felt some vague feelings,
thought 'maybe it's coming on' and lay down to focus on it.  it faded
in around ten minutes
so i drank more.   i played tag like this with vague effects for a while,
taking huge gulps in an attempt to get strong effects from it.  eventually
i quit, and went out for dinner.  i felt no effects.

        as soon as i ate a medium-sized meal, my stomach began to hurt.
i lay in bed for a while, feeling like i had indigestion.  well, that feeling
turned into the most horrific drug experience i can even imagine having.
it did not involve any alteration of consciousness except that caused by the
waves of cold chills, the protracted vomiting fits which dredged up stuff
i'd eaten 8 or more hours earlier, and the diaherria which shortly consisted
solely of yellowish water.  for close to 10 hours all i could do was lay
shivering under tons o' quilts, crawl to the bathroom to puke up clots of
fairly-well-digested food and quarts of water i'd been drinking to keep
hydrated, and shit water.  i almost had someone take me to the hospital,
even knowing how barbaric they are there about drugs (they tried to help
a friend who was freaking out on mushrooms and made the mistake of going
there by interrogating her for almost an hour about where she got the shrooms)
        eventually my girlfriend found a reference to mandrake which said
it could be used as an emetic, a very powerful emetic, and not to usde it
since other less dangerous herbs give the same effects.  they said, if you
were driven for some reason to use it, to make a tea approx. 1/6 the
strength of the one i'd made, and sip a tablespoon an hour for four hours.
holy shit i drank about two pints o the shit!

        moral of the story:  stick to legit, illegal drugs.

.