My Chinese friends crazy tolerance

[andro91]

So firstly, I've stalked the forums a lot whenever I have questions about drugs.
I wouldn't call myself an experienced or even casual user but for 4 years now I have quite often used pills/md/coke/weed. I feel fairly confident in knowing how different drugs feel for me.
About 6months ago a friend of mine from university has decided that in his last year he wanted to experiment with drugs a little.

the first time we had 2 pills each of a relatively easy going pill that friends and I had thought would me MDA based- my friend had reported feeling normal, when I had a fairly expected effect; happy, chatty, full of energy, getting into D&M's etc.

the second time my friend without me this time had said he tried 2 mdma caps, he has no memory of this night, but other peoples accounts of him say he seemed very drunk and like he was having a great time.

this friend of mines third experience with drugs was with me, we had each 2 pink clovers (Aus, nsw) which are listed as moderate MDMA, really fun pills, not too intense tho. I was rolling pretty hard off it. gurns, eye jitters, my beer tasted sweet etc. He still felt normal he said so he had an MDMA cap, after this he still said he didn't feel any different however, to me he seemed affecte. very touchy feely, chewing gum, super open with conversation etc.
that night we had also later smoked weed to ease into sleep, although he said he was unable to maintain his train of thought in conversation, he said he didnt feel any other affects. mean while myself, if you excuse my language, I felt well fucked.

last week end we had got white "sex"(aus) pingers, I had 1 at 10pm that night, then later another 2 at midnight, mixed with a fair bit of alcohol I was rolling pretty hard, he had 1 with me at 10pm another 1 at 11 and then 3 at midnight, and reported feeling mildly good and wanting to dance. nu gurns etc.

last night this friend of mine wanted to try weed just on its own for the first time.

After seshing about a $50 worth of (about 4g worth in australia) in joints between 3people, I was ripped. my eyes where read and i couldnt sit still, full giggles, everything. this friend of mine, seemed more sober to me than ever.

A little background on this friend of mine; He's full blood Chinese, he does experience rosacea from alcohol although that seems to affect him the same as others, he's 23, these are his only experiences with psycho active substances.

I know drugs affect everyone differently, but for a person who hasn't had much exposure to drugs, I can't imagine why he'd be so tolerant to pretty much everything.

in a few weeks we're getting cocain for a celebratory end of exam period, I think I'll give up on trying to get my mate bung eyed if he says he feels normal.

anyone know anyone like this? or know of a reason for this?

thanks in advanced

 

[Red ghost]

Is he on medication?
I have a Chinese friend, I'm so multicultural, but he can't hold his ale or any other substance lol.

 

[andro91]

no meds at all, no history of med or mental disorder
I mentioned his background because he does have the genetic abnormality common in the Chinese population that results in an inability to metabolize alcohol properly. Resulting in almost body wide rosecea.

 

[Kl519]

I can assure you that a person's nationality has nothing to do with it, or if so, it is negligible. At the very least, if it actually had a notable impact then it would be noted in a study. What matters is the dose and the weight of the individual, body chemistry and metabolism rate, etc.

I've hung out with many people of Asian descent of all kinds, and I really don't think it matters one lick. I'm Korean myself and live in a very populous area, so I'm comfortable around any person of any race. I really don't care about that, just how the person is matters to me.

Anyway, I'm not going to look this up (just using my base knowledge, Google can be very inaccurate sometimes) but I'm pretty sure people who turn red from drinking alcohol are not only normal, but extremely common. The ones who don't might just be too dark-skinned for people to notice. There are exceptions, since some people I know don't turn red at all and they are light-skinned.

My psych friends are a melting pot, and now that I think about it I've never seen anyone dark skinned turn red, lol. Or it's super hard to tell, idk because I really don't look out for that or pay attention to ish like that. But really, I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with mdma. I've met a lot of Chinese acquaintances when I was in my super social phase in the rave scene, and most get floored from a single pill, aka it isn't race related. And really, most people should just need one under normal circumstances, me included in the first year I started.

Idk, the premise here is a bit cloudy, which is reflected in this post. What's your point? Even if there was someone who went through something "similar to this, or have experienced that" it sounds a bit facetious and like a "person is rofl behind the computer, thinks it's hilarious (?)" type of post.

I could be wrong, but yeah. I'll play along if you give a "real" response.

 

[Pretty_Diamonds]

Yeah, what's up the the ethnic card? Lol.

Everyone is different, regardless of ethnicity.

Also, pot affects people differently. People who don't smoke a lot tend to have a higher tolerance with weed for some reason.
It could be that some drugs just muted the effects for him or he could be downplaying it because not everyone feels comfortable being totally "fucked up".

Asians in general get red. Chinese, korean, japanese, etc... It's not that "rare".

 

[andro91]

I can assure you that a person's nationality has nothing to do with it, or if so, it is negligible. At the very least, if it actually had a notable impact then it would be noted in a study. What matters is the dose and the weight of the individual, body chemistry and metabolism rate, etc.

I've hung out with many people of Asian descent of all kinds, and I really don't think it matters one lick. I'm Korean myself and live in a very populous area, so I'm comfortable around any person of any race. I really don't care about that, just how the person is matters to me.

Anyway, I'm not going to look this up (just using my base knowledge, Google can be very inaccurate sometimes) but I'm pretty sure people who turn red from drinking alcohol are not only normal, but extremely common. The ones who don't might just be too dark-skinned for people to notice. There are exceptions, since some people I know don't turn red at all and they are light-skinned.

My psych friends are a melting pot, and now that I think about it I've never seen anyone dark skinned turn red, lol. Or it's super hard to tell, idk because I really don't look out for that or pay attention to ish like that. But really, I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with mdma. I've met a lot of Chinese acquaintances when I was in my super social phase in the rave scene, and most get floored from a single pill, aka it isn't race related. And really, most people should just need one under normal circumstances, me included in the first year I started.

Idk, the premise here is a bit cloudy, which is reflected in this post. What's your point? Even if there was someone who went through something "similar to this, or have experienced that" it sounds a bit facetious and like a "person is rofl behind the computer, thinks it's hilarious (?)" type of post.

I could be wrong, but yeah. I'll play along if you give a "real" response.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC303676/

you're right, the rosies are common, but in Caucasian populations its usually a result of poor cardiovascular health or alcoholism resulting in liver damage.
As I mentioned in the post, I bring attention to my FOAFs nationality because he does have alcohol sensitivity and he attributes it to a genetic condition common in the chinese population. given its to do with the liver and metabolizing alcohol. why not other drugs?

Anyways, to answer your question. No, I'm being serious. I've never met anyone in my life before who seems to be unaffected by weed and has such a high "natural" tolerance to mdma

 

[Tanner Blaze]

Yeah this sounds strange, but I did read a study that showed Native-American Indians (who are technically Asian) are more suspcetable to alcoholism because of a genetic trait, so this idea that race doesn't matter may not be true. I used to play in a band with a guy who was native american and lived on a reservation, probably about 75% of the people there were problem drinkers and obese. This could also have to do with the culture and environment within the indigeous community to a certain extent, but I witnessed so many stereotypes that turned out to be true it was kind of depressing. As far as MDMA, I met a girl once who said she didn't really get high from it, but I have doubts she actually tested it before she used.

 

[Foreigner]

There are ethnic relationships to xenobiotic metabolism, but it's unPC to talk about it and researchers don't get funding to look into it anymore. The CYP450 group of metabolic enzymes are in-born, but can also change with epigenetic modification, so the ethnic argument isn't fully relevant anyway. People who take drugs their entire lives will eventually experience genetic changes to their metabolic pathways, and this is a subject of pharmaceutical research in the west now. We actually have entire populations of people whose liver chemistries have been permanently altered by long term pharmaceutical use. If you take two siblings who came from the same parents and have the same CYP450 potentials, yet one lives a life of various use while the other lives clean, they will eventually test differently in their metabolic potentials, on the genetic level.

But speaking strictly in terms of inherited metabolism, yes there are ethnic relationships.

It's a well known fact that east Asians and first nations (American Indians / aboriginals, who are technically also an offshoot of the pre-historic asiatic groups) have a higher propensity toward alcohol flush reaction, as well as with other drugs, because they more often are slower or incomplete metabolizers of substances. I practice Traditional Chinese Medicine, and originally when it came to the western world, westerners were having bad reactions to the herbs because the prescribed dosages were for Asians. There were herbs that westerners had never been exposed to before at any point in history. Westerners need a smaller dosage, Asians still need the larger doses. Individuals of course will vary but as a demographic these trends are true.

It's well known in ethnobotany that plants closer to a person's geographic ancestry will be metabolized better vs. substances at a distance.

But again... it's taboo to talk about these things because the politics du jour say to think otherwise might feed racists who think different ethnicities are actually different species, or seemingly justify some eugenics practices. But even if there are different polymorphisms within humanity, it doesn't negate the ethos of treating one another with respect and equality.

 

[BlueBull]

^
That is an amazingly interesting post, thank you!

 

[Foreigner]

^
That is an amazingly interesting post, thank you!

You're welcome. It's the reason why I avoid GMOs if I can, and long-term pharmaceutical use. We have no idea how a population's metabolic ability is being transformed by these unnatural substances, mostly because there isn't enough research into it. Most of the labeling for adverse reactions rating from common to rare are called "side effects" and have been treated as such for over a century; but now we are beginning to discover that once allergic reactions are precluded, the "side effects" are actually due to polymorphisms in the metabolic pathways. The most severe, rare reactions are due to the most rare, incomplete metabolizer types, generally speaking. It's also possible that the longer a person's metabolism is subjected to pharmaceutical epigenetic stress, the more likely they will have an ADR to the most random things, as their body loses its ability to deal with common xenobiotics -- even food based ones.

It's not highly publicized information, because once word gets out that X number of people are statistically more likely to have an ADR to a drug, that population would be more likely to avoid pharmaceuticals. It's also why the FDA is cracking down on private genetic testing firms. I had my whole CYP450 profile done for $300 about 5 years ago. That company has since been disallowed from doing genetic testing, as have many others. There are huge profit motives to keeping this information secret.

What I find unfortunate about that whole conspiracy is that if we had transparency about genetic metabolism, we could evolve into an era with custom-made pharmaceuticals based on a person's genome, thus greatly lowering the impact of ADRs. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical drug model is based on a one-size-fits-all approach and the belief that the same drug should do the same thing to all people, when the reality is that only a certain genetic demographic will always react favorably.