Other posters have commented mostly everything I could come here to say, but I do have one thing to add. Since you're clearly fucking around with "alt opioids" or whatever you want to label them as - if you see something labelled as or containing tianeptine, DO NOT FUCK WITH IT! TIANEPTINE IS LITERALLY THE FUCKING DEVIL PEOPLE SAY ITS WORSE THAN HEROIN. Got addicted and had to cold turkey it myself, most miserable time of my life. Days upon days of feeling like my bones were trying to peel themselves out of my skin. I still remember the feeling thinking about it.
FUCK TIANEPTINE.
Sounds like a smart decision comrade. Solidarity :fidel-salute:
I mostly agree with what ShimmeringKoi said. You're not doing it wrong, but the quality of kratom varies wildly, and it's almost always garbage from a headshop unfortunately. Those stickers don't necessarily mean a godamn thing. Since you're here, you know how much product quality assurance actually means in general. We can't trust that our food isn't fucking poisonous and kratom is a barely-lighter-than-grey market unregulated drug. Still, even if it's shit quality, you're right you should be feeling something. The THC high can definitely block it, but if you have no tolerance (to opiates I mean) then 7g should be getting you somewhere even if it's just a mild glow. You could just be a hard head and need a bit more though.
A few considerations: If you do have any kind of opi tolerance this will make the kratom almost useless unless you take quite a lot of it. Assuming that's not the case, if I were you I would continue to up your dose little by little but you may have to give up and wait a day or two and then try again at a slightly higher dose. You might try changing up how you take it too. Mix it up with a little lemon juice as a tea and drink it slow; if you're already doing that, try instead downing it via toss'n'wash (carefully, and yeah most agree it's gross). If you are already doing it as tea, don't boil the kratom itself as that can destroy some of the alkaloids, but pour the not-boiling but scalding water over it and mix.
If you are one of the rare people who just plain can't get anything from it (it's not totally unheard of) then maybe be glad. It's certainly not the worst drug when it comes to addiction, obviously. Sorry for the unsolicited part of my advice, but if you are opiate-naive, it may not be a bad thing to keep it that way. There have been many poor souls who were truly shocked by how much a seemingly innocuous drug like kratom was able to take hold. Be careful. Especially if you do end up enjoying it and wanting to take it more than a couple times a week, it would be a good time to think about setting some rules for yourself or just sticking with good old THC.
and they are both related to the same liver enzyme
Ah, good old CYP3A4. While I was on milk thistle supplements (which suppresses CYP3A4), I made the mistake of taking a small piece of a D8 edible and was surprised at how much -- and how quickly -- it fucked me up. And I mean just a shard off of a chocolate square that should have contained maybe 25mg for the whole square. At the time, I didn't know that CYP3A4 metabolizes THC. Live, learn, and trip balls, I guess :vivian-shrug:
Been doing kratorm for a couple years now, here's what I've learned:
-I don't bother weighing out doses, just doing it by sight as I pour the powder into tea. It takes everyone some experimentation, but it's no biggie if you take a little too much by mistake. Worst you're looking at is an upset stomach.
-The way I use it, it's very much a "support" or backdrop substance when I want a nice happy baseline. It's not the kind of thing I can get fucked up on by itself, but it plays very well with others. Good with weed, great with alcohol if you're careful (it can make one drink feel like two, but you're rolling the dice if you drink too much because they're both depressants. Depending on body weight, I'd say stick to one or two drinks if you're on kratom. You're unlikely to need more than that anyway.)
-The effects of non-red strains are most pronounced at low doses. At higher doses, all colors act like relaxing reds.
-Fantastic for intimacy with others or oneself, and for hard exercise (went biking on some white vein and when I looked up from the few feet of street in front of me, I was covered in sweat and had reached my landmark in record time)
-As a safeguard against addiction, I typically limit myself to 2 or 3 times a week. Some may find that a bit often, but I've always been an altered consciousness enjoyer and that's not a lot in my book. I haven't noticed any kind of withdrawal symptoms.
I'll probably have like 10 other things I remember as soon as I hit post
I have a buddy who apparently got addicted to kratom but I did it everyday for most of a year and never got any withdrawal symptoms. Definitely felt like it helps my energy levels along with mollifying aches and pains of working a blue collar job, getting a buzz off of it is not a constant though, but if I do catch one it's just an added bonus.
If you're managing pain with it, obv try to speak with a pain management specialist about it if possible.
Addiction is a fuck and you don't want to be keeping well while trying to get well.Idk about long term/habitual use (I can imagine you'd soon need a field to supply yourself longer than a week), but the humble poppy is the way to go tbh
I know nothing about kratom beyond it being a cessation/alternative tool for opiate use, but like, just use opiates? It cooks down easy, you don't need to mess with isolating and acetylising anything if you don't want to, and you know it'll work
Poppies are definitely more reliable than kratom for getting you high and they don't have the stimulant effect that can make kratom more... unpredictable. But I would not suggest someone start with poppies over kratom. The main alkaloid you're getting in poppy pods (or seeds) is straight up morphine. Poppies are going to be stronger in general, they're going to get a person addicted more easily because you can always just take more to get higher or overcome your build up of tolerance while kratom essentially has a ceiling where after a certain amount, more isn't going to do anything but literally make you vomit. And because of that last part, most importantly, it's almost impossible to OD on kratom. That's not the case with poppies because they don't have that ceiling and it's impossible to know how much morphine you're actually getting when doing poppies.
I have lots of experience with both as well as with harder things.
Yeah and you don't want to get newer pharmaceutical/high thebaine poppies. I generally work on a 1:10-1:15 estimate for morphine content from the dried latex, to taste of course. It's a biannual thing for me only so small scale works fine, but yes the road is fraught with dangers
Sounds like you have it worked out really well. And yeah if you're using the latex that's going to be way more consistent and reliable for dose than would be grinding the whole pod and/or using seeds which is usually how I'd do it. If you're going with straight latex, I personally would just call that opium. (I didn't have access to the pods I used while they were growing, so I couldn't go and scar them. When I started with pods it was back during the "floral arrangements" heyday on ebay).
That's awesome you use them only biannually. I think that's the way to do it when it comes to recreation.
First batch is straight latex, but I do cook down the straw at the end of season too.
I get maybe 2 weeks or 4 weekends each time, is nice, and too laborious to develop a habit.
I feel for those with actual plugs tbh
I find that really cool tbh. At-home (or even cooler if it's guerrilla) seasonal gardening. Being part of their growth and controlling the process literally from start to finish. Plus keeping any habit in check as a result, sounds to me like the ideal kind of relationship if you're going to have one with opiates. I tried to do something similar once, but they never grew well for me and I was paranoid about some neighbors that hated me.
It really was a blessing but a huge curse back in the day when a person could order a giant box of dried pods for less than $100 and be able to stay high 24/7 for almost a month. That situation didn't last though, they never do.
necessity invents all women, or something. I started with weed because our black market is straight poison these days, then just added to the roster from there. One day I'll have my own little fairy garden, but for everything else there's
mastercardnational parksFrom my perspective, you're living the dream! I've wanted to do something like that for a very long time. Grew my own weed for a little while (very small operation of 2 plants), but also grew salvia divinorum and just for the hell of it, morning glories. Had plans to start doing the shroom thing, maybe even peyote and see where I went from there. But life got in the way. I sure wish you success and the resulting wonderful experiences with your fairy garden. I'd imagine it's a pretty rewarding, grounding pursuit, even if it was born out of necessity.
I found some datura nearby recently, would be great to grab a cutting. Mushrooms would be a dream to see too tbh
Life sure is a fuck, the fact we can't just tend to plants and sleep til afternoon is an absolute crime
I actually saw some datura in the wild too and thought about snagging a little for myself, though that was a couple years ago and I decided against it. (Same with amanita muscaria I've spotted a few times). I'm definitely curious, but also a bit wary of deliriants, especially after a diyphenhydramine trip I wouldn't want to revisit. If you do grab a cutting, and if you then decide to do further testing on it, I think hexbear would be improved by the posting trip reports every now and then. Just a thought.
As for mushrooms, I sadly can't speak from experience growing them, but I've been told it's very easy, easier than cannabis for sure. Especially given what you're already cultivating, it wouldn't seem much more to add some magic spores to your growing garden.
I know, right?! Ah, the things that could be, were it not for... well, you know. The all encompassing yet decaying power structures that rule all our lives like Lovecraftian monster-gods. In a sane and just world, every community would need someone like you to do just what you're describing doing. It would be something appreciated and celebrated, like it should be, instead of something illicit and largely condemned, as it is.
Saw your posts about deciding not to mess with it after all, just wanted to say i don't think you're missing much. Tried abunch of different kinds a few years ago and dosing enough to get a nice high wasn't worth the fuckin awful nausea it gave me every time. Also the high wasn't like, that nice or anything. Weed and psychedelics and like five different kinds of antihistimines when the pollen is up seem to be all i require.
