Mescaline?

[Biovail]

So I'm planning on consuming some mescaline-containing cactus in the next few days (san pedro), and it seems like most people suggest making a sort of "tea" out of the cactus by boiling and and then straining it. But mescaline is an alkaloid. And most alkaloids aren't very soluble in water. So how effective is this sort of extraction?

 

[sekio]

most alkaloids aren't very soluble in water.

In their freebase forms, maybe. But mescaline is present in the cactus as a salt, usually citrate or lactate I think. And most mescaline tea teks involve adding e.g. lemon juice, or vinegar, to further help extraction.

Be forewarned, cactus tastes awful. The taste lingers on and on, too.

 

[Flickering]

Nah, cactus doesn't taste awful.

Cactus tastes fucking unbelievably terrible. Steel yourself. Boil it down to 100mLs so you don't have to suffer for too long.

 

[psychomimetic]

^Eh, suck it up, it's not that bad. It's pretty terrible to drink, but simmer it till it's not thick and just chug it and chase with orange juice. I prefer cactus tea to Robitussin, that's for damn sure, and I haven't found the taste to linger personally. I also have found Peruvian torch to taste a lot better than San Pedro.

You know what's really terrible? Eating raw San Pedro. I've done it, but god damn is it bad, that's definitely something I don't want to do again. Especially cause you have to eat a whole foot or more. Bleh.



So to make tea, first you prepare the cactus, which there are a couple of ways to do. I've usually removed the spines and then peeled the skin off in strips (just the translucent layer of the skin, don't peel any green off- it takes forever but the light green right under the skin is the most potent bit). Then I remove the core and slice the flesh into pieces, put them in a blender and blend until it's a goo. Add to a pot, add lemon juice (I usually do 1 lemon per foot of cactus, roughly), and add a tiny amount of water, just enough to turn the slime into a slightly thinner liquid, but it should still be very thick and gross.

I've read of people saying they freeze the cactus slices before making tea to break the cell walls, but I don't know how much effect that really has because I've never done it.

The other way to prep the cactus is to just blend it all up, only removing the core. I've never done it that way.


So after adding the liquid, heat the pot on medium heat, stirring constantly. DO NOT BOIL. You want to bring the tea up to a simmer, but avoid boiling, and stir it very frequently if not constantly. Do that for as long as you can stand, stirring all the time and keeping the tea at a low simmer, hot but not boiling. After 1 hour the tea is no longer the texture of mucus. After 2 hours the tea is fairly thin and has reduced a lot. I've often consumed teas after 45 minutes or an hour, but if you can cook for 2 or 3 the drinking experience will be much better.

Then strain the mixture through a t-shirt into a cup and squeeze the hell out of the cactus that gets caught in the shirt, to get any residual goods out.


Then sit back, grab some orange juice and bread or chaser of your choice, and chug that shit. Expect to feel nauseous, but try not to puke for the first couple of hours, till the drug is absorbed. Then puke away and enjoy the best psychedelic.

It sounds like a lot because it is a lot of prep, but it is 100% worth it. I've come to enjoy the preparation phase actually.

 

[Ismene]

It might be an idea to just buy a little pedro first. A lot of people take one sip and simply can't take another sip without gipping and throwing up. Don't spend too much money on it until you find out whether you can drink it.

I never really found any nice method of taking it - mixing it with other flavours never worked for me. Does a dog turd taste any nicer if it's smothered in ketchup?

 

[Vader]

Just do an STB extraction. You get to feel like an alchemical shaman, and you've got some nice crystals rather than sloppy twiggy goo. Issy, I know you've struggled with emulsions in the past- heat, water, base and time will thin that cactus snot right out. It's simple- mix cactus with water and lye, heat until the mucilage slacks off, then pull with xylene, salt with HCl. And then you've got a pile of fucking mescaline crystals. What's not to love about that?

 

[Ismene]

Yeah I'd love to give it a try if only cactus was cheaper Vadar - it's ridiculous prices in the UK and you don't want to risk importing it as customs and the police have been known to prosecute it for being a "preparation of mescaline".

One of my fave drugs ever after an extraction.

 

[Vader]

Yeah, it's a labour of love alright, but can you really put a price on an eighth of shining mescaline crystals that you've wrenched from the universe? Superlative. I've done it once, and got about an eighth of mesc (after acetone washes) from a half-ki of cactus. Im sure practice would push that figure higher.

 

[Ismene]

Yeah I do love it, fantastic for music. I never found it too psychdelic tho - I think mushrooms are a lot more psychedelic and allow you to go deeper emotionally. Have you ever tried DOM? That's the closest thing I've found to mesc.

 

[Vader]

In my fucking dreams would I try DOM. The grail, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[4fOhmeohmy]

I'm interested to know why you would consider STP to be 'the grail'. It always seemed to me to be such a gilded psychedelic when things like DMT, 5-MEO-DMT, and PCP exist.

But as for the Mescaline talk, I actually kinda like the taste of San Pedro. It taste like Elephant snot and liquid emotion imo. The preparation however is a damn tedious process. I used to have a recipe for Mescaline Coladas that were the best, but when it comes down to it all the time and effort is completely worth it. My personal favorite method is simply throwing a foot or two into the freezer over night (I honestly don't know if it is of any value either honestly but it was the way I was taught and it theoretically makes sense) then take your rock hard cactus and let it thaw over night. The next morning take it and and cut each section into quarter wide slices, peel off the outside translucent my hand (after the thawing it comes off pretty easily). Feed this into a food processor and add a peeled and deseeded lemon and some salt depending on your taste. This mixture can be consumed directly or you can boil it down with one of the methods proposed above.

Also I have found that the chaser that works best for me if it gets to be a little much is 100% pure cranberry juice. Nothing can beat that flavor it kills every other taste in your mouth with a big sip.

 

[Vader]

Dissociatives aren't so much my thing, they rattle me and tend to bring on a bit of mania. Don't get me wrong, I like a bit here and there, and I'd try PCP if I was offered it, but I have no intention of searching it out. There's no shortage of DMT in my life, and I can source 5-MeO-DMT, but again don't really feel like it. I tend to prefer simple tryptamines to the ring-substituted analogues. DOM is the most elusive and the most exciting of the magical half-dozen, and it sounds like a wonderful substance to me. I don't really know what you mean by "gilded psychedelic", but I agree in a sense- DOM is my gold dust.