A lot of this has been covered elsewhere but I wanted to make a single thread revolving around the noble aim of getting as high as possible for your poppy $$, share my experiences, and solicit others' ideas.
Seeds or Pods?
My experience: either works, subjective effect is indistinguishable, however the potency of seeds is simply too variable. I stick with pods.
What Kind?
As long as it's Papaver somniferum, it doesn't seem to matter much. Larger pods are more expensive gram-for-gram than small ones (probably because they are more sought after by flower arrangers), so I buy small pods, strain irrelevant.
How to Prepare?
For seeds: actives are all on the outside, so the best prep method is to shake for a minute or two in hot water and then strain. Steeping merely causes morphine in solution to soak into the seeds and be lost.
For pods: Grinding into a fine powder is my preferred method, but simply crushing the pods by hand seems to work just as well. Dosing by weight of ground powder is highly recommended to standardize the experience and lower the risk of accidental OD. I place the powder in tea filters and steep it in ~90C water (not quite boiling) for 20-30 minutes. Acidifying the water does not seem to help. After I do a hot water extraction, I generally leave the powder in cold water for another 8-12 hours and then use that water as a base for the next batch of tea. This does improve potency a fair amount.
How to Administer?
There are three good options: eat the pods, drink the tea, or plug the tea. Eating the pods is certainly the best way to get all the actives, but I opt for plugging in order to avoid unpleasant GI side effects. Rachamim mentioned in another thread that basifying the tea might help with bioavailability when plugging. I tried this today (3g calcium carbonate added to 750mL of solution), but it had no appreciable effect other than a burning sensation when plugged.
How to Potentiate?
Cimetidine (Tagamet) and grapefruit juice are usually mentioned as good potentiators. They seem to make little difference when plugging, probably because drugs absorbed through the colon are only partially subject to first-pass metabolism in any case. Even when poppies are consumed orally, the potentiation is not likely to be more than 10% or so. Worth a try, but don't get your hopes up.
Two substances that do work very well in combination with poppy tea are DXM (dextromethorphan, available OTC in cough remedies, but make sure it's the only active ingredient), and diphenhydramine (available in OTC allergy medications). I have found that even the "recommended" dose of these substances produces substantial effects in combination with poppy tea. I'm not sure potentiation is the correct term, though, because these substances are each psychoactive independently and add their own coloration to the experience. For instance, diphenhydramine makes me very sleepy. YMMV.
IMO the best "potentiator" of poppy tea is set and setting. Using the tea when you are relaxed and have no responsibilities or places to go is the best way to ensure a positive experience.
Tolerance
Tolerance is an unfortunate fact of life with opiates, and morphine is the original opiate. I have heard anecdotal reports that using small amounts of DXM daily can reduce opiate tolerance, but I have seen no clinical data on this and in my experience the effect is minor.
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I NEED HELP
