To go with mandrax smoking scenes in you tube documentary I posted in my previous post I found in google books a book called rainbow vice by ted leggett. I'll post the excerpt latter because the link is on my other laptop. In the chapter "white pipe gangsterism" they get into the whole methaqualone smoking scene in SA.
It talks about the history of mandrax abuse. The pills called "buttons" on the street are crushed up and smoked. In contrast to other countries that saw the use of MQ decrease in the early 80s and then die out by the end of the decade. In South Africa use and abuse increased through the 80s until 70% of all drug seizures in SA were for this drug. Aparently, the drug is being produced in labs in India primarily- both licit and illicit was initially imported into SA via the large Indian South African population. There is also a compelling argument mentioned that the aparteid government was involved in producing MQ to pacify non whites- some of this evidence came out in the findings of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission (TRC).
This excerpt mentions the market for mandrax. An overview of how its produced and pressed into pills. Aparently big buttons are sought after and called "titanics". In spite of the fact that buttons must be reduced to powder in order to smoke in a white pipe, people will not buy MQ in a powder form- this phenomena is similar to yaba in thailand. Whether because of nostalgia or the pills imply greater legitamacy and cant be cut after pressing only the pill form is available on the market. They are usually 30-80% MQ with diphehydramine which potentiates the drug. They are usually pressed with "Mx" imprints and disturbingly swastikas and SS logos (even though they are not produced by white supremicist gangs, but by mostly by coloured or Indian gangs). Star of Davids are on some buttons and other logos too ("golfstix" are kind of like the VW logo upside down, were the M commes together forming an X except there is a seperation or the logo broken in half vertically rather than horizontally like the VW logo .)
The methods of smoking are described too. "To make a white pipe, a beer bottle is broken off at the neck so that part of the body remains attached." [You can see this in the you tube docu I posted]. Sometimes the fracture line is softened with a flame, to make a cleaner break. A 'pacie' is created by folding a piece of cigarette foil or other paper into a spiral shape. This is wedged in the neck of the bottle and acts as a filter." Certain particular brands of tobacco are mixed with a specially prepared low grade cannabis (dagga) called "majat". The button is then crushed and applied to the top of the preparation forming the "cream". " A lighter is then applied to the cream and the user draws from the bottom."
The experience is then described. "The white pipe experience is an intense one. The initial rush is so powerful that many users 'ert' or 'earth' immediately after use. They lose conciousness of their surroundings and fall to the ground drooling. The total loss of control means that mandrax (Mx) can only be smoked among trusted companions, which reinforces the social nature of the drug." Aparently once this stage is over, users slip into a euphoric peaceful state that that has been likened to heroin intoxication but with more incoordination.
The majat is prepared from low quality dagga and tobacco. It is unclear what the full story is with its preparation according to the author but parafin wax and other additives are introduced to facilitate the vaporizing of Mx. "Users say majat is preferred for white pipe because it does not overpower the Mx and because it blackens nicely." In the documentary you can see the white pipes sparking, I wonder if its the Mx or an additive in the majat the causes the preparation to spark. Its trippy that people develop different methods to optimize the smoking of different drugs and that alot of the paraphenelia is similar for each drug even between different parts of the world. A kind of convergent evolution. The majat mentioned sounds like its similar to the prefered way PCP is package in the Silicon Valley. The material that the KJ is sprayed on to form a lenios is usually parsely or dirt weed. Although with KJ there is less of a concern of overpowering the high because its already a drug that overpowers most others-but whats choosen might have been because it optimizes the vaporization of the PCP. As usual I digress. But anyway this is a good book excerpt and not a long read. I recomend highly you read this if you are even the least bit interested in the Mx phenomena in South Africa or methaqualone in general.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Y4i...a'&f=false
And for my example of the phenomena of convergent evolution between different drug scenes here is a youtube Al Jazeera broadcast on tik (meth) use in South Africa. The pipes they use there are the same types that are used here in California. But in keeping with the thread, one of the Tik heads smokes Mx to chill out his meth high at the very end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySLoAvfthIU
Enjoy
.
