I have been hearing the call of Mescalito again recently. I am definately in need of a couple/few doses of this very powerful medicine. Therefore I have begun working with cactus again for the first time in over 6 months. I am slowly but surely processing a couple San Pedros by de-spining, peeling (waxy layer), coring, then sectioning, drying and grinding with a mortar and pestle. I also added a small amount of dried Peruvian Torch chips I had on hand. I hope to have about 250 grams of ground material before I begin trying to extract Mescaline. Last time I did this I used a food safe tek which yielded Mescaline acetate. I am happy to do this again and have even procured a French Press to help squeeze out all the goodness. But I am also taking a look at other teks that might be within my skill set, as well as within the reality of the glassware I own and chemicals I can procure without raising eyebrows. Meanwhile, I had a San Pedro from many months ago that I had de-spined, skinned (waxy part), cored, cut into pieces and frozen. I defrosted it, put it in a pan, added a squirt of lemon, covered in water and cooked down without boiling for quite awhile. Repeated 4 times. I collected all of this reduced liquid into a Pyrex dish and proceeded to reduce and dry more using a fan and my oven with just the light on for heat. I wound up with about 7-7.5 grams of golden resin that looks like candy (root beer barrels). Almost too hard to work with but actually just right, I broke it into chunks, rolled into flour and jammed neatly into 00 gel capsules. I presume I should just take the whole amount but am wondering what level of trip/experience I can expect this to produce. If anyone here has cactus resin experience (San Pedro), I'd appreciate your input/insights.
The 8 grams of resin was disappointing. In hind sight and in speaking with some cactus psychonauts, I realized I needed more like 10 grams to get psychedelic effects. Still, had a great day and the next day was also wonderful, as it always is after mescaline or cactus. A few weeks ago my husband gave me a gift fit for a psychonaut - a gigantic, old San Pedro cactus. At first I estimated it to be 5 feet, but I think it was more like 6-7. It was old, possibly half my age. I never had the privelege of working with such an old one before. It had such a hard, fibrous core that I had to use a miter saw to cut it into chunks. I have been spending weeks gradually and lovingly preparing this cactus. I am now past the 1/2 way point. I de-spine, carefully peel, section, core, slice, slowly dry, then carefully and very finely grind the super dry chunks in my mortar and pestle until I get the finest powder. I am storing this powder in a Ziploc. I believe I currently have close to a couple hundred grams currently with more to come. No half measures here. I'm going all the way. This gift cactus almost literally fell into my lap. I am going to do the mescaline extraction here. No tea, no resin, no capsules of powder. All the way. Should take about 40-50 woman hours total, with about 15-18 already invested. I am taking it slow and careful, loving and respectful. Both towards the cactus and towards my body. I may not make it by New Year's Eve, but that's okay. It'll be ready when it's ready. Time when it's time.
Ive always done this in terms of length of cactus; 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet, etc. (3 to 4 inch diameter). 3 feet was an awesome full psychedelic of all inclusive levels, however, I have observed a friend of mine do 6 feet. 6 feet san pedro, of just the green layer, reduced to dried powder ran around 130-140 grams of powder. If i remember right, (notes are on an offsite laptop), the extraction tar from an IPA extraction was 1/4 the weight of the powder, if so, then 60-70 grams dry powder (an awesome psychedelic trip) per person would reduce to 15-17 grams of black tar in 14-15 capsules (oo). Clearly water may have a different solvent index than IPA, so there may be more or less of the plant fats, waxes, and 6 other psychoactive alkaloids extracted, however, I think the 15-17 grams resin would likely be similar. So, the 8 grams would be very light. I would recommend the IPA extraction if given the option; its too simple, too easy, too straightforward to dismiss. IMO.
That's cool. I thought your husband was against your use of psychedelics, at least with the potential for bad expeciances? Because mescaline has those (psychedelic masochist here) Out of curiosity, have you taken DOB? Am I correct that it's a similar experiance to mescaline? (I have taken DOB, and would LIKE to take mescaline, but like a lot of things, it's on hold for me for now)
I verified the data: "Each gram of tar represents 4 grams of powder" of green layer extraction. Provided you are using for the most part the 4-5 mm layer of green tissue only, the above perspective of san pedro efficacy is a reasonable one...
My husband is against my use of RC's. Although he knows the heavy dose of Mescaline will put me out of it for the day, he's not against it per se. He consumed a lot of it back in the 1960's. I have not taken DOB. I believe it is also known as STP. My husband has taken massive doses and tripped for 72 hours. But again, that was back in the past.
