Opioids Anyone tried Victorian era Laudanum?

[HeadphonesandLSD]

I posted about my Great Grandfather tonight and how he enjoyed several different types of 'snake oil' back in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Which reminded me about Laudanum and the fact that I've never gotten to try it. I've been wanting to for decades now just to see what kind of high Great Grandpap was getting from those bottles of snake oil. He was a heavy morphine addict by the early 1900s but they said he still loved collecting patent medicine bottles and would regularly take Laudanum during the day even after he got access to pure morphine.

I know laudanum is claimed to be sold today by prescription but from what I know it's nowhere near the stuff they were mixing into patent medicines back in the 1800s. Nowadays it's an opium tincture/extract that's not mixed with any other substances. Where the stuff my Great Grandfather was using was undoubtedly being mix with local corn liquor along with various other substances. I've been trying to track down old recipes for making 16th-19th century laudanum but there really isn't much to go on. You get some general information on wikipedia on its page but the details on ratios is never really listed and the really early stuff has things in it that I don't really want to consume like

Paracelsus's laudanum was strikingly different from the standard laudanum of the 17th century and beyond, containing crushed pearls, musk, amber, and other substances.

But this looks like some ingredients might be interesting;

Laudanum, as listed in the London Pharmacopoeia (1618), was a pill made from opium, saffron, castor, ambergris, musk and nutmeg"

Saffron caught my eye due to the fact that I could substitute safrole in its place maybe. Then we have;

was mixed with a wide variety of agents, drugs and chemicals including mercury, hashish, cayenne pepper, ether, chloroform, belladonna, whiskey, wine and brandy.

mercury aside most of the others sound like they could be interesting in the proper ratios. ether and cloroform surprised me because I never considered taking them orally but I heard both were very popular at that point in history even by themselves. I already know a bit of belladonna adds to the effects from taking some combo opioid+cough syrup years ago that included it. I got some interesting CEVs from it although the usual problems with substances in that family apply of course.

It seems after morphine took off they just started using it directly for patent drugs instead of opium extracts. I've only had raw/crude opium a few times and I never really had enough to get the full experience out of it. I had poppy seed tea once and it was pretty nice from what I remember. But I've never made proper pod tea which I hear is much better. I've also heard the horror stories about pod tea having awful withdrawals compared to most of the pharma opioids I abused over the years.

But I was curious. If given the chance what do you think a good replication of say early 1800s patent drug/snake oil containing opium/morphine+alcohol as the main three ingredients would be? What kind of other stuff do you think would be put in a formulation to replicate the laudanum from the old west/Victorian era? I know there are a ton of herbs and flowers out there people claimed was in this stuff back then. Along with our good friend cannabis of course.

I've also heard that pre-morphine laudanum contained all sorts of alkaloids including codeine of course but there was another one that escapes me at the moment that was a natural antidote to opium itself I *think* it might be Noscapine. I also know thebaine can make you feel pretty awful if you take too much and I suspect this made laudanum in those days more self limiting. That people knew you could only consume so much before you'd puke your guts up and feel awful in general. Does anyone know how often cocaine was used in such formulations/patent medicines? Do we have any details on what was exactly in certain brands of it pre-1914?

I've been toying with the idea for many years to grow a small patch of poppies, mix it with some liquor and attempt to replicate late 1700s-1800s laudanum just because I wanted to see what all the women in those old westerns felt like. They look like they were nodding pretty hard but I wonder how much of this is hollywood myths. I'd also like to really try smoking real smoking opium before I die. Perhaps when I'm 60+ years old on a trip to SEA or something. But I'm not sure if those dens still exist. The whole process of using those long pipes and being surrounded by the local women lighting my pipes and serving it on a platter just appeals to my love of history I guess. I'd love to find a real deal opium smoking den one day.

Any information about laudanum would be appreciated. Has anyone here tried it or had it prescribed to them before? I've never seen anyone get a prescription but I've heard they still prescribe it for diarrhea and to babies sometimes but I'm guessing it's nothing like what people were using back in the wild west days. I found a couple of his old glass bottles and I thought it'd be fun to fill one of them back up and keep them around to remember Great Grandpap.

 

[paltatomate]

I knew a guy who tried laudanum once, prepared by his Wiccan sister following a recipe she found in some book.
He said it wasn't a great success, other than the experimenting part. But it might have been a tolerance thing (his explanation, as apparently the sister did feel the effects).

 

[SeekingOblivion]

I made some poppyseed tea into a tincture, idk how that compares though. I don’t use opioids, so I don’t even know what morphine feels like.

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

Yes; I make my own.

 

[doubledog]

IMO laudanum (I mean opiates in alcoholic drink) is the best way to consume opium/pods extract, as due to improved absorption it hits little bit harder than tea. It's also not so difficult to make from pods, if you really want to try. But it's more complicated than just put it in some liquor and strain, and is quite labor intensive.

For some "classic" laudanum recipe, belladona, cinchona bark, nutmeg and other spices could be good candidates. Whisky is quite good in masking the taste of alkaloids, port wine is also fine. Belladona has great synergy with opium, but is very risky. Better to avoid it if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[Mycophile]

Yes; I make my own.

What's in it and what does it feel like? Do you think it has the same ingredients as the old fashioned stuff did?

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

What's in it and what does it feel like? Do you think it has the same ingredients as the old fashioned stuff did?

I don't put any of the odd stuff in there that can be found in old recipes. It's just basically tincture of opium (dissolved in 80% alcohol), sweetened with a little sugar syrup. I like to flavour it with spices like cinnamon.

It's a nice mellow, long-lasting high. A couple of spoonfuls and I feel like I'm gently drifting through the next few hours.

 

[Mycophile]

I don't put any of the odd stuff in there that can be found in old recipes. It's just basically tincture of opium (dissolved in 80% alcohol), sweetened with a little sugar syrup. I like to flavour it with spices like cinnamon.

It's a nice mellow, long-lasting high. A couple of spoonfuls and I feel like I'm gently drifting through the next few hours.

I don't think I ever smoked legit opium. My friends and I smoked what we sometimes called "soap-ium" in college. It smelled great and tasted pretty good, but the effects were extremely subtle and mild. To this day I wonder what was actually in it. Sometimes we'd smoke something called "red rock" which was even worse lol.

What would you compare the high to? The only opioids I've used are oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, Kratom and Kratom extracts.