Risks of LSD vs. Mescaline vs. Psilocybin

[Ismene]

This is the same guy who has been selling me LSD, 2C's, shrooms, DMT, and MDMA, and it has all been real, and very good.

I'm gonna go ahead and trust him on this.

Let us know what it looks like. The dealer himself might not even know it's not mescaline.

 

[Ismene]

Yes. Some Native American cultures smoke the cacti for religious purposes, hence it is legal. However I wouldnt go around announcing you have mescaline, because you would have to prove that it is for your religious ceremony.

Is this in the US you're talking about? I thought it was only legal if you're a member of the Native american church? And even then the local sherrifs are constantly harrassing and arresting the guys who grow the peyote for the church.

Smoke it? I think they eat it - smoking would destroy any active alkaloids.

 

[A Blind Guy]

Let us know what it looks like. The dealer himself might not even know it's not mescaline.

Of course, of course.
I'll be picking it up the day before so I will let you all know.

The only problem is trying to find a place to do it, *sigh*. Me and my lady want to be able to get naked but I don't know if that's gonna be able to happen.

 

[Strongheart]

mescaline alkaloids are usually in powder or crystal form and most likely anyone saying they have it is selling you fake stuff. When we were teenagers they used to sell these tiny white buttons the size of like the tip of a pen and said it was mesc but it was really a low dose of lsd. Real mesc is hard to come by and expensive. Youd have a easier time finding peyote buttons..

 

[A Blind Guy]

I'm just taking a leap of faith, man. Why are you guys bummin me out haha.

 

[Strongheart]

not tryin to bumm ya out, its just mescaline isnt easy to produce or profitable on the drug market like other drugs are. Its hard to obtain real mescaline.

 

[yagecero]

Mescaline is weak and taking one hit will just make you laugh alot.

I definitely wouldn't class Mescaline as weak (unless you're talking by weight), and I certainly don't think that it comes in hits.

Mescaline is, in general, an "easier" psychedelic when it comes to managing effects, but taken at the right dose, it is more than capable of handing your arse to you on a plate, and it can last for a LOOOOOOONG time, which is something to definitely keep in mind before dosing a large cactus tea. I find San Pedro to be very powerful in its effects, it's an amazing teacher that deserves respect.

All psychedelics have the potential to cause harm to anyone that has a predisposed condition. And while it's definitely a valid argument that hallucinogens have the power to do the exact opposite (I healed my depression/anxiety with Mushrooms), care has to be taken when embarking on such a journey.

To the op, I see that you're Australian, so I'm guessing you dosed Psilocybe Subaeruginosa (which is a very potent mushroom), so I'd recommend a second round of subs at a lighter dose. I've seen inexperienced people wig-out on a 1-1.5 gram dose of subs.

 

[slimvictor]

Several years ago, I decided to study the experience reports in Erowid's vaults, focusing on the question of which of several drugs (including the three being discussed here) were the safest as well as most enlightening. Here are some of my results:

drug comparison
8/19/03

From perusing the erowid experience vaults, I have come up with the following:
total percentage of personal experience reports submitted by internet users in three categories: "Bad trips", "Train wrecks/disasters', and 'mystical experiences' for several drugs. N represents the total number of reports submitted.

LSD (N= 444 )
bad trips 14.6%
train wrecks/disasters 6.1%
mystical experiences 7.7%

Cannabis (N= 422)
bad trips 7.1%
train wrecks/disasters 2.8%
mystical experiences 5.9%

Cacti (containing mescaline) (N= 58 )
bad trips 0%
train wrecks/disasters 0%
mystical experiences 5.2%

Mushrooms ("magic mushrooms") (N= 396)
bad trips 6.6%
train wrecks/disasters 1.8%
mystical experiences 7.8%

Heroin (N= 42)
bad trips 2.4%
train wrecks/disasters 4.8%
mystical experiences 2.4%

Caffeine (N= 64 )
bad trips 6.3%
train wrecks/disasters 3.1%
mystical experiences 0%

Salvia divinorum (N= 375 )
bad trips 2.4%
train wrecks/disasters 0.8%
mystical experiences 7.5%


(added later)
Hawaiian Baby Woodrose) (N= 92)
bad trips 5.4% (N=5)
train wrecks/disasters 1.1% (N=1)
mystical experiences 6.5% (N=6)


To compare the substances, first I have combined the "bad trips" and the "train wrecks":

total non-ecstatic experiences
Cacti 0%
Salvia 3.2%
HBWR 6.5%
Heroin 7.2%
Mushrooms 8.4%
Caffeine 9.4%
Cannabis 9.9%
LSD 20.7%

What is most relevant to this thread is that Mescaline gave the smallest chance of a non-ecstatic trip (this matches my own experience, which says that it is very difficult to get into a bad head state on Mescaline, as opposed to mushrooms and LSD).

Mushrooms were better than LSD as far as non-ecstatic trips.
I suspect that this is an effect of the wildly varying dosage of LSD-containing tabs/gels/sugar cubes, leading people to take too much due to the lack of visual evidence of the high dosage, whereas mushrooms are generally more consistent / vary less in dosage, and require the person to eat fairly substantial amounts of fiber. Basically, it is really easy to take too much LSD, but slightly more difficult with mushrooms.


Finally, I've compared the percentage of mystical experiences attained on each drug - we find that the top three are essentially identical:

mystical experiences
Mushrooms 7.8%
LSD 7.7%
Salvia 7.5%
HBWR 6.5%
Cannabis 5.9%
Cacti 5.2%
Heroin 2.4%
Caffeine 0%

Cacti are slightly lower on the list than the other two substances here.
I don't know whether the difference is statistically significant - or whether the categories assigned by Erowid volunteers until that date are valid (or whether the proportions have changed since that date). Still, it was interesting to me that the results supported my gut feeling (based on experience with all three drugs) that tells me that Mescaline is the least risky, but it is easier to "become God" with mushrooms or LSD.

 

[yagecero]

So you think that mescaline containing cactus is less liable to give you a mystical experience than cannabis?

I think I already know the answer to that one.

Cacti are powerful teachers, they might be "easier" and less likely to throw you into a dark experience than say muchrooms, but they're not "weak" at all.

That's crazy talk 8(

 

[Flickering]

Thanks for posting that slimvictor, I thought it was very interesting. It has changed a bit since you recorded it; there's now at least one bad cacti trip there last time I checked (though when I read it, it wasn't 'bad' per se, more of a difficult experience.) I'm also surprised at the very low proportion of bad salvia trips.

These results aren't going to be too scientifically reliable but it is interesting. I often look at the proportions myself when researching a new substance.

Yagacero cheers, I just looked up the species. I'm pretty sure I didn't take psilocybe subaeruginosa, because the shrooms I took were actually tiny, I'd say about a centimetre each. They were dried, however; does this drastically shrink them? I had about eight of them, I think. They were, however, apparently quite potent; my roommate had taken 1.5g the night before and said it was intense, and his friend had a fairly hard time on the same amount, but it was their first time too.

 

[yagecero]

Yagacero cheers, I just looked up the species. I'm pretty sure I didn't take psilocybe subaeruginosa, because the shrooms I took were actually tiny, I'd say about a centimetre each. They were dried, however; does this drastically shrink them? I had about eight of them, I think. They were, however, apparently quite potent; my roommate had taken 1.5g the night before and said it was intense, and his friend had a fairly hard time on the same amount, but it was their first time too.

Unless you're from northern NSW or QLD - and even then Cubensis (the other prolific mushroom in Australia) is out of season (it grows in summer) - what you have will be subaeruginosa, and yep, they shrink drastically upon drying. If you're from Melb, Adel, Tassy, South W.A, Canberra, or even Syd, I'm 99.9% sure what you had are subs.

Subaeruginosa are one of the strongest strains of mushrooms in the world, isn't it great to be from down under? And they're ridiculously plentiful throughout Autumn/Winter.

By all means, if what you have in your yard is DEFINITELY (I haven't seen pictures yet) San Pedro treat yourself to a brew, but don't write off the subs - just slowly build up your dose once you're more familiar with them.

 

[Flickering]

Hah thanks for the advice. I'll pass this on to my friends too; the guy who found the 1.5g trip intense should know they're potent before he jumps in at 2.5g like he was planning (I told him not to.) It also gives me some peace of mind to know that probably contributed to my trip being so heavy, even though it was a small amount. In a few weeks, I'll be taking either 2c-b OR mushrooms again, depends what my friend manages to find. But if it's mushrooms, it will only be one gram this time.

And yeah, I really hope the cactus is what it looks like. When I get the chance, I'm going to take a small branch to an entheobotanist for confirmation. Then I'm going to cook it up and serve. Reeaally looking forward to that.

 

[slimvictor]

So you think that mescaline containing cactus is less liable to give you a mystical experience than cannabis?

I think I already know the answer to that one.

Cacti are powerful teachers, they might be "easier" and less likely to throw you into a dark experience than say muchrooms, but they're not "weak" at all.

That's crazy talk 8(

I agree that Cacti are powerful teachers.
I am not saying that they are weak.
But I do feel that Cacti typically give me a “push up against the boundaries and discover lots of new things about myself” kind of experience, but not necessarily a “break through the boundaries and discover new things about heretofore hidden aspects of reality” kind of experience.

For me, generally speaking:
cactus is emotional,
LSD is psychological, and
mushrooms are spiritual.

Oversimplifications, to be sure, but generally valid ones.

 

[yagecero]

I think those categories are decent observations considering the skewed nature of language.

And I wasn't referring to anything you said when I went on my cacti are powerful rant. It was in relation to someone else's post - I've definitely noticed your love and respect of mescaline by reading your posts SV

Peace.