Opioids Pod Users - WATCH YOUR SUGAR

[Bojangles69]

I want to explain this carefully as I'm sure not a lot of pod users understand how sugar can actually compound wds and make them much worse.

This last time around its been about 2 years now on pods. And I tend not to take just a little bit I usually like to feel the flushing in the face and what not and sometimes I'll take 80gms, other days 150gms. You can prob compare 150gms to like 20-25 large/xl pods.

With this there is massive sugar intake. The refined white sugar. A 100gm dose for me winds up being like 12 cups of liquid, or 6 avg glass fulls about. I do this as I don't like double washing. I use more water, and let my tea always sit for about 8 hours or so before I drink it. That way it gets nice and thick/dark.

In order to consume this crap I put in one protiens scoops worth of sugar into each glass. A protien scoop is likely 4-5 tablespoons of sugar, its a lot, but if I just do 1-2 I get that foul pod taste and it taste like shit.

Fast forward _______________________________________________

2 years of mass sugar consumption. I never ONCE looked at the dangers of what this sugar was doing to my body, as I was always eyeing pods as the culprit.

Sugar at any sort of high dose like that can cause a variety of problems. And it took me again 2 years to really sort this all out. It wasn't untill I actually decided to read about it, that I nearly shat my pants because I had EVERY SINGLE side effect a person can have associated with high sugar intake.

Hypertension - I was diagnosed in stage 2 hypertension a couple months ago, its about as severe as it can be.

Mood swings - I was thinking these were being caused by the pods, which they are, but when I took sugar out for a week, I felt almost completely normal it was appalling how drastic the change was. I started using sugar again this week and now my temper is back, I have drastic mood swings, and its about 90% coming from continous high volume sugar intake imo.

Anxiety - From the hypertension, I get these little shocks in my chest sometimes just because of how bad the hypertension would get at times.

Glaucoma - Ok granted I don't have glaucoma, what I DO have is a severe blurring of my vision however. The doctor said this was from the hypertension the sugar was causing. I also notice when I use higher doses, and a lot of sugar, sometimes when I wake up even putting my glasses on I'm walking into walls. It clears up somewhat but in the mornings I'm nearly blind lol. Its not funny actually its pretty scary.

Insomnia - Look this is not a don't drink soda before bed type thing. This is from a regular high intake of sugar, and the difference between this insomnia and the insomnia little kids might get from soda, is that even if you stop drinking pod tea (w/sugar) 8 hours before bed, you still won't get to sleep till about 4am if your lucky. There was a point where I'd make sure all my consumption was in the morning, and even once that night came around I still couldn't sleep. I wasn't in wds, and told myself it couldnt be sugar due to how I timed it out. WRONG. It becomes chronic, and does not matter how early you consume your sugar. Once you start taking in a certain amount everyday, the insomnia establishes like a legit medical disorder or something, its terrible.

Now the IMPORTANT part.
If there are pod users out here and your main DOC is pods. And you take in a lot of sugar, and you are getting crazy hot flashes, GET YOURSELF TESTED for hypertension.

I went month after month after month, where I'd drink my doses for the day, and AFTER my dose kicked in I started getting hot flashes. You can imagine what type of mind fuck this was for me getting hot flashes AFTER I had my dose. I use to just get them when I'd get far outside the realm of dosing time. And associated it to wds. Well at one time I was having hot flashes all day long it seemed. When I tried lowering my dose I wrote threads on here about how awful the hotflashes were. They were like nothing I've ever experienced in my life.

And the lower I got the worse they became. Although my sugar intake was getting lower, I was still in a hypertensive state. Once you develop hypertension from sugar intake it doesn't just go away by stopping the sugar. This led to the point where I was having terrible sweats just by tapering, hot/cold flashes were horrific, and it also aggravated the shit out of my RLS.

If you read my pod taper thread, you will see this all in action.

Now my point. I was put on coozar which is a potent anti-hypertensive. I got on clonidine w/out seeing a doctor for it and it didn't do shit for the hotflashes, nothing at all. I even went up to 300mg clonidine and no change in anything. I was tapering and hoped it would help with hotflashes, it didn't.

But coozar is fucking ridiculous. It takes 3 weeks to kick in unlike clonidine which is instant. But being on coozar now I DO NOT get hot flashes no matter what.

I can drop my dose 90% and still not get hot flashes. I also tried it once where I stopped using just for 2 days, and normally by hour 48 I'd be in a mess of cold/hot flashes, coozar floored this crap 100%. Very impressive little medicine if I might say.
Now I try to use stevia with a lower amount of sugar, and my vision isn't improving yet but the dr said it will the longer I go not being in stage 2 hypertension. And I'm amazed how radically I can drop doses and not even feel off. I'm sure the coozar is doing something beyond just addressing hypertension, because prior to this even the tiniest drops would have me reved up like there was no tommorow. Coozar puts a hold on all the neurotic overamped adrenaline in my body and I'm amazed how quickly I've been able to drop pods now since it kicked in.. fucking amazed.

So for any pod addicts out there WATCH YOUR SUGAR. I almost think the sugar would be likely to kill you way before the pods would do anything bad to you. Use stevia, and if you can't get yourself checked for hypertension. Its not fun once you go stage 2 because it can get pretty severe. Sweats, shakes, hot/cold flashes, and this is w/out even coming off an opiate. Imagine how that shit compounds when you ARE coming off an opiate.

Stay healthy, thats all I can really say.

 

[Timland]

Honestly, as someone who tries to follow a low-carb eating regimen, and remains in a state of Ketosis while doing so, poppy tea knocks me out of Ketosis. Now this is only possible if poppies themselves contain starches and sugars. I know the high alkaloid ones have a very sweet smell (but obviously not a sweet taste -- so deceiving I thought when I first used them -- damn near vomitted).

I use those sugar-free (issues concerning aspartame aside) powders you add to bottles of water as there is a working theory that there may be some freebase morphine in pod tea and adding this stuff (it must have high concentrations of Citric Acid) converts that freebase morphine into Morphine Citrate. If it follows other drugs, particularly calcium supplements, Citrate base is more absorbed. IME, I don't notice much difference but it makes it taste a HELL of a lot better without the sugar. Combine lemonade and raspberry flavor for best results.

EDIT: If you have been using lots of sugar for awhile and suspect pre-diabetes or diabetes but can't afford a doctor various companies offer free diabetes meters with 10 test strip. For best results test while fasting for about 12 hours (that includes pods). See if your blood sugar is high. Also test 2 hours after ingesting pods to see what affect the pods have on your blood sugar. (Just pointing that out in general, as lots of sugar can bring about diabetes as well as hypertension).

 

[MACstar]

Wow that's good to know. I can handle pod powder nowadays but a few years back I consumed massive amounts of sugar too. I would use about 1 lb mixed with my dose every morning. Then I would drink sprite all day! Now I like opiates + Caffeine. I guess I just have my phases?

I hope you get your hypertension under control. It's too bad you had to go through all this hell to get this information out.

 

[Timland]

Then I would drink sprite all day! Now I like opiates + Caffeine. I guess I just have my phases?

I hope you get your hypertension under control. It's too bad you had to go through all this hell to get this information out.

I use (diet) soda/soft drink the lemon lime ones work best, after drinking pod tea to avoid heaving and eventually puking. I don't know the details of it, maybe placebo, but it prevents me from puking 90% of the time if I heave. I don't know how much active ginger is in diet ginger ale but that'd work great too to ward off nausea.

I sometimes take ephedrine and caffeine (normal doses of both) because, call me crazy, but I don't like nodding. I mostly used pods (will probably use them again, I'll admit) to deal with anxiety disorders without using GABAergics, and depression. But the body high is nice too. There were a few times I had some scares and took oral naloxone with a few ephedrine to open up breathing -- these were in the early days of my use when I had trouble titrating properly (note that naloxone will induce withdrawal and you won't be able to redose any opioid/opiate for a period of time... but it's good to have on hand to save yourself in the event of taking too much nonetheless -- WD sucks but death sucks more.) Correction: They may be NALTREXone but it's an antagonist as well.

Oh and don't take ephedrine if you have hypertension!

 

[enzymex]

I'm trying to low-carb most of the time as well. Dried pods most likely do contain quite a bit of digestable carbohydrate. I definitely notice junk food and candy cravings while high on pods. It could just be effects from the opiate alkaloids. Food is just very pleasurable while high on opiates. Especially If I smoke a bit of bud with it. I usually chase pod powder down with water and sometime make tea without any added suger.

 

[MACstar]

^Timland. A little trick I use to not throw up after swilling poppy juice is I press down really hard on my chest with both hands. Right over where the heart is. It sounds silly but I swear it works. Try it and you will do it everyday. It works anytime you are about to puke from anything about 90% of the time.

^enzymex. I always wondered what dried poppy powder consists of nutritional wise. And I get madd munchies too. I usually don't like candy or ice cream or anything like that. But damn, If I am on pods.....I will eat so much of the two combined. I will take a trip down to the store and buy snickers and reeses and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and mash it all in a bowl and fuckin gain 30 lbs in one sitting lol. And Benzos make me crave hard candy. Jolly ranchers and stuff. Weed: Little debbies.

All that junk sounds gross to me right now hahaha. I'm sober.

 

[Timland]

^Timland. A little trick I use to not throw up after swilling poppy juice is I press down really hard on my chest with both hands. Right over where the heart is. It sounds silly but I swear it works. Try it and you will do it everyday. It works anytime you are about to puke from anything about 90% of the time.



All that junk sounds gross to me right now hahaha. I'm sober.

Yeah I've sort of done a variation of that on my abdomen at times when I get massive abdominal pain from chugging 64oz at once (of course I only do this when I know a batch intimately to know its alkaloid content will be sane). I gotta close my eyes, put on sound dampening headphones bend and hold until either the opium water gets to my brain or the poppy liquid passes the abdomen. Whatever happens first. I'll try that though thanks.

Yeah at the moment I'm sober as well (minus some safe spaced out dosing of Phenibut -- GABAergic which I am overly sensitive to). My tolerance was getting ridiculous. I don't use it daily so I'm spared the full wrath of a full physical withdrawal when I do take breaks, its the psychological that gets me. Runny nose and maybe a little cramping of the legs is all I get when I withdraw. I usually pop naltrexone (EDIT 2014: DONT DO THIS! I am a fool for ever suggesting this! 24 hrs precipitated WD...) to induce withdrawal after the high wears off instead of "waiting for the storm" as poppy tea WD can take 3 days or so to kick in since it likes to hang around for awhile. I do taper down before I jump off and break though.

I was briefly using tramadol then ceased when I realized how useless it was (for me) and I wasn't going to exceed the seizure threshold of it. I'll save em for bad headaches or something. I usually use every 3rd or 4th day and that keeps my mental faculties in order. The preparation effort and time alone deters me from daily use, plus I like to give my digestive system a chance to move things along lol. I realize there are ways to use daily and avoid this issue and/or your body adjusts though.

 

[billburrows]

Yo guys, I'm just using pods for maintenance (mostly) but yeah, I leave mine to stew overnight and drink it cold - it's a lot easier to get down when cold. I put some sugar in the first time but don't bother now and still find it easier to get down than methadone. I drink a half pint mug straight down and wash it own with a (usually cold) coffee chaser. I used to drink a lot of alcohol and started on whiskey when I was a teenager, sluggin' it down out of the bottle. That was an education for the taste buds and any kind of "medicine" is easy after that.

 

[enzymex]

After thinking about it a bit more, I don't think eating 30 grams (my usual dose) of dried pod powder can induce such a big insulin rush. There has to be quite a bit of indigestable fiber and protein in there too. thinking it's more likely that insulin peaks will just feel pleasurable on opiates, sugar rush getting enhanced by the opiate high.

 

[doppelganga196]

I'm grateful you've shared this op, but for god sake, just pinch your nose & use some willpower to get it down you! So many people are such wimps when it comes to a little 'bitterness', you don't need sugar!

 

[Timland]

I'm grateful you've shared this op, but for god sake, just pinch your nose & use some willpower to get it down you! So many people are such wimps when it comes to a little 'bitterness', you don't need sugar!

I did that for awhile. My routine was to put on a piece of classical music, or electronic music with NO vocals that was crucial vocals would cause problems in the risk area of vomitting. I'd then close my eyes as I chugged, with a glass of soda poured, IMMEDIATELY down the soda and sniff into the can and then slam 5 pieces of mint gun into my mouth and chew like mad to get that HORRIBLE aftertaste away. Then I immediately moved the cup FAR away so it didn't emanate its disgusting odor. I left the chosen piece of music on loop until I knew it was safely down beyond the point of puking. Silence, and closed eyes if I get the abdominal pain, which was 1 in 5 dosings in my estimation.

It was only when I read in one of the megathreads about morphine freebase being converted to morphine citrate that I began adding powder drink mixtures with high concentrations of citric acid to the mix (I add them to the whole nasty brew, straw and all) I then double filter, through a mesh filter, then through a permanent coffee filter just to prevent gunk from getting in (it still gets in somewhat. It's crucial I stop before said gunk hits my tongue or that can cause heaving too).

Second washes were always about 50% potency for me, so I added just 1-2mL of everclear (highest proof ethanol) to it to inhibit bacteria and hopefully mold, seal it, stick it in the fridge, sometimes redose with it 4 hours later if things aren't potent enough.

 

[MACstar]

I used to be a total wimp when it came to chugging nasty brews. Shit now I can down San Pedro slime with a whiskey chaser! But I had this whole routine back in the day. I couldn't chug my poppy tea (grounds included) unless I had some music on LOUD (i like metal) and atleast a window with a view of trees to look out of. Somehow all that occupying my brain would decrease the chance of me yakking while chugging.

Heavy metal: Check
Trees softly blowing in the breeze: Check
1 LB. of sugar: Check

Then I would be good to go. If I didn't have ALL of the above I would remain dopesick. I had a roomate at the time that did pods as well. He would grind the pods for like 10 measly seconds, dump the chunky powder in his mouth and somehow swallow DRY fuckin powder. Dude was a trooper! He would look at me like I was a spoiled little bitch. "Oh poor little baby doesn't have his Danzig and Trees. Boo hoo"

But I would instantly throw up everything if I didn't follow though with this strange ritual lol.

 

[doppelganga196]

^ I dunno about the San Pedro part! Thats stuff is without doubt the worst thing i've tasted so far in my life. It's like stomach acid mixed with washing up liquid!

 

[MACstar]

For real it has a stomach acid type taste, with a mucous texture. I have done it so many times though that I am used to it. And the worst part is every time I did it I never got high. Not once.

I don't know how many times I have tried it. I tried every damn recipe from erowid and other forums. I even got pachanoi and the other kind(can't remember what it's called) from different cities and states from the southwest. I guess I just got weak cacti EVERY FUCKIN TIME??

One-O-These days though........

Any tips?

 

[Timland]

Since part of the topic is the starchy/sugar content of pods themselves I thought I'd throw out there that my in-ketosis before-tea level was 90mg/dL to 102mg/dL blood sugar 2 hours after dosing. Tells me the amount of carbs in pods is not much cause for concern or I'd have seen a bigger spike than that. Nonetheless it does interfere with Ketosis for all you Atkiners out there like me who are in either Induction or on-going weightloss. Heh. Compensate with extra exercise I suppose (not while nodding obviously, don't want to get an injury).

 

[panic in paradise]

ive been eating pods for years, and i never have used anything but juice to drink the grinds with, by pass the tea, too much chance to waste...
the max i get to iss 5 large w/e pods a day, one or two at a time, able to tolerate the w/d's, and do what i needed to with them again shortly there after.

the seeds have ~1g surar and ~26g's carbs, a mass of amino-acids, and a lot more. using them too cook with, or make sauces is a very good idea... a secret super-food really.

 

[brokenpinky]

Sugar..

I never used pods. I have been on oxys for 3 years now. For the longest time I would start to get sick about 6 to 8 hours after I dosed I thought I was having W/Ds So just took my pill and felt better.
Then the times I ran out I got really sick about 12 hours later I mean full W/Ds I would have to call and run around looking for a fix.
I take on average about 40 to 80 mg a day of oxy's in some form.
About a month ago I was diagnosed with Diabetes. I been taking meds for it and I have it pretty much under control.
I swear that I can go 8 hours now before I have to take a perc 10, and feel very little ill effects from it, before I would be going crazy at the 8 hour mark with out taking a dose.
No sweating or stomach pain, or just that plain dope sick feeling. When I read your post it was like "hmmm imagine that"

So anyone out there that takes opiates on regular basis and can't go more than 6 to 8hrs with feeling really sick. Get your sugar checked out. I'm not saying it gets rid of W/Ds but I sure do think it has helped me tolerate mine alot more..

"PEACE"

 

[Pegasus]

For real it has a stomach acid type taste, with a mucous texture. I have done it so many times though that I am used to it. And the worst part is every time I did it I never got high. Not once.

I don't know how many times I have tried it. I tried every damn recipe from erowid and other forums. I even got pachanoi and the other kind(can't remember what it's called) from different cities and states from the southwest. I guess I just got weak cacti EVERY FUCKIN TIME??

One-O-These days though........

Any tips?

Yeah, the alkaloid content of the cacti is really variable... Some strains are way more potent than others. I'd shake up the vendors you are getting cacti from! Also, pachanoi are typically less potent so I'd steer clear unless you know that you're getting a good strain!

 

[MACstar]

Yeah, the alkaloid content of the cacti is really variable... Some strains are way more potent than others. I'd shake up the vendors you are getting cacti from! Also, pachanoi are typically less potent so I'd steer clear unless you know that you're getting a good strain!

I have yet to order San Pedro from a vendor. I am thinking that is the way to go. I always just snagged them from deserts and what not. Oh and the other strain I was thinking of was Peruvian Torch. Did about 8-12 inches everytime. Baby cacti, medium size cacti, hell even some giant ones that looked like they had to have been as old as my grandpa!

It's the only tripp I haven't experienced aside from all the RC's. Never tried any of those. Unless MDA counts. And I like MDMA better, and it's tough to get a hold of ANY good molly nowadays. For me anyway.

And on the sugar topic. Anyone else notice that a buttload of sugar mixed with alcohol has terrible negative effects? The two combined get my heart racing and I just feel miserable in general. I kinda had it in my mind as a suspicion and well, last night in the middle of a bottle of wine, I had a very big slice of double fuckin fudge cake and 10 minutes later I just felt like I was having an episode or something. And I had a headache for like 3 hours. No more sugar for me period. Shit is evil.