This is something I wrote for another site I belong too, and it well applies to the question of how bad can mold be for you. Please remember that some molds can kill you. This was written over two years ago and I have learned much since then about the poppy and opiates in general.
Like many others here, I felt my floral shows were becoming too frequent, and I decided to stop. My current run was about 300 gigs in two months. I know, too much, too soon. I knew I had a monkey and it must be dealt with. I have had a previous experience with wd's (I have has many since then), and knew that day three of Wd's would be the worst, due to the long life of the PT (poppy tea) goodies. This time however, it was only about 24 hours after my last cup that I was hit with a vicious need to visit the bathroom. Strange I thought, could it happen this early? Upon exiting the bathroom, I felt a slight fever and a general malease. I thought a good night of sleep would help me feel better, so I attempted to do just that. I awoke every couple of hours to use the bathroom, this was not going well. I awoke a couple of hours earlier than usual feeling quite ill in the stomach. I promptly blew chuncks. The steak and potato dinner I had the previous night was in retrospect a poor choice. Flash foward to 14 agonizing hours later, and I had probably puked about 20 times by now, and voided my bowels about half as much. If I tried to eat or drink anything, back the way it came in, it went out. (sorry for the graphic descripitions) I looked so piss-poor that word trickeled down the grapevine and my father called me to see if I wanted to go to the ER. "Hell yes", I said. At this point I have never been so sick in my life. I got to the ER, did the waiting thing, like you always have to, and finally got to see the doctor. They did blood and a urine deal and promptly called it a virus. The virus caused the oh so lovely gastrointestineitus. Really I have never felt so shitty. As I was getting fluids and meds, including 4 mg. morphine IV for stomach pain (woo hoo), the doctor asked if I had eaten anything unusual two days prior to the night. I of course said "no" as even PT was not unusual for me, I have done it countless times. But this got me thinking. Since I did decide to quit, I wanted to use all my remaining supplies, including a couple of moldy pods. I cleaned these as carefully as possible, but I guess I did not do a great job of it. This is the only possible foreign material around me that could have caused this. Damm them moldy pods! I have should have known better. Also, I never used to wash my pods (the outside). Gone are the days when I act so careless about what goes into my body. So after the night in the ER, they sent me home with several meds to help control the symptoms. My vomiting continues for five more days, but with decreasing frequency each day. The worst part was no solid food, only liquid, for five and a half days. Of course I went into wd's during this time. The worst parts of wich were poor tempature regulation, very cold all the time, and extreme insomnia, which because I had the bug was very distressing. Hot showers, four or five a day, did help a lot with the coldness I felt, and also helped by taking away the focus on my painful, empty stomach. It took me twelve days to feel normal again. The moral of the story? Don't use moldy pods for any reason and do wipe all useable pods down. I would not wish what I went through on my worst enemy. The good that came out of this was twofold. Since I am out of wd's, I now know how to aviod them in the future (the knowledge, sadly, has not worked out that way
). For me, I have to only view once every two weeks. Any more than that and I can see bad habbits coming to life again. The other good thing I learned, was to respect the gifts that nature gives us. By using the moldy pods I showed greed and disrepect. I was only thinking of myself and worring about feeling good. Please everyone, go slow and respect. If you do that, only good things can come to you.
Peace.
(hope that helps someone)
DON'T ever use moldy pods, it is not worth it. Oh yea, my uninsured ass got a bill for almost $3,000 for the ER visit. Two moldy pods guys.