Hi, I came to this website as i was looking for a book by Jonothan Ott entitled "Shamanic Snuffs or Entheogenic Errhines". One of your members, named Wira, had posted it (thanx!) I was searching this book because I have just started a tobacco cleansing treatment using an organic tobacco snuff. I am English but live in Santander, Colombia. It was shown to me by a yagé practitioner as a good way of cleansing my lungs and sinuses and also clearing my mind, since I have recently given up smoking cigarettes permanently and weed at least temporarily. The idea is that it will help me bring up and expell all the toxic residues that have been left in my system. He also told me it was good preparation for an upcoming yagé ceremony (my second only and first in 4 years). I thought you might be interested in how it is done.

It involves blowing a small amount of snuff up each nostril once or twice a day. You use a cut-off bendy plastic straw (I'm sure the indigenous people might use a natural tool like a reed but this is actually perfect for these purposes) with a few pinches of tobacco inside. One end goes in your mouth, the other in your nostril. You do not inhale it but simply blow, then add more snuff and do the other nostril, and let it sit there a while. The feeling is really intense! Your nose stings like crazy and feels very hot. Your head is infused with a warm glow, your eyes water and there is also a feeling of pressure in the top of your head. It is trippy in a sharpening of your senses kind of way, although obviously nothing like a dmt containing snuff. Last night was my first glow (ja ja that was a typo - I meant to write go) and as I looked at the moon it shone so brightly I could feel it penetrating my head in an uplifting and almost painful way. I listened to some trippy minimalist electro (Kschzt - The earth´s hum) and it sounded amazing. I had another go this morning and the effect was similar except with the sun replacing the moon. As I stood there facing the warm morning sun with my eyes closed, I felt an amazing warm and red glow throughout my body and mind. I know this happens when you face the morning sun anyway but the feeling was certainly heightened. These were unexpected pleasurable effects since I am doing it as a cleansing exercise and my intention is a medical and spiritual one (anyway who says spirituality can't be fun right?). Anyway I have been bringing up large amounts of dark, lumpy phlegm ever since the first hit (nice!), so it is definitely working in the medical sense too. I feel more clear-headed, I can see more clearly and as I look outside I have just realised it is very similar to the feeling I used to get for days after smoking 5meo-dmt, which I haven't done for a long time now. I feel rejunevated and inspired.

But here's an amusing but deeply sad irony: This region of Colombia is famous for it's commercial tobacco crop, which supplies the company Protobacco, bought by Phillip Morris 5 years ago. It is made into Mustang and Premier brand cigarettes and I have also been told it goes into Henry Winterman cigars. This commercial tobacco is grown by small farmers who then sell it to the big companies. The snuff I have been taking is from the same region, but is organically grown. However, as far as I am aware it is the same genus of tobacco. Since my favourite brand of cigarettes was Mustang, it seems I am using tobacco to cleanse myself from the same regional tobacco that I had been smoking ! What a clear demonstration of how the white man utterly misunderstood healing plants. They came here, discovered the healing plants coca and tobacco, and through their ignorance and greed, turned them into deadly toxins. Their first thoughts were. "Wow, these are powerful drugs. I can make a fortune!" The healing powers of these plants are largely unknown outside indigenous communities yet their bastard offspring, cigarrettes, cocaine and crack, continue to wreak havoc the world over. Incredible and, like I said, deeply sad.

Tobacco eh? That plant lures me back in like nothing else, not even booze could wrap itself around me like tobacco. I can limit my use down to almost nothing, but that last bit is not an easy thing to let go of. I haven't smoked in 6 days, and hopefully will be able to make it 60, then 600.

Anyways welcome to the boards! I did not even realize that tobacco was grown for commercial cultivation in Columbia.

It's one nasty addiction...but once you've seen an autopsy of a smoker you won't be able to go near it trust me

Maybe there's someone else by that name, because I haven't posted copies to anyone that I recall, and I only have a photocopy myself.

Sorry my mistake it was UNTM, Wira just posted on the same thread.

A slightly naive view. In this country the pictures of black lungs and cancerous tumours are printed on cigarette packets, also most people know someone who has died a painful death from smoking... Not to mention the ever rising cost of tobacco. Yet the majority of people I know (myself included) still smoke.
Addiction can be a very powerful thing.

Though it's just the way of things how civilization has had it's mishaps... it's still quite unenticing how so many are into smoking cigarettes and haven't experienced the health effects & ecstasy of rustica. I struggle to even find a vendor for it in the UK (despite this it's still cheaper buying american rustica over taxed mass produced lesser tobacco).

Same can be said for Ephedra sinica (while people are trying cough medicine and cold & flu tablets). Cacao when people get off on milk chocolate. Ephedra & cacao when people are drinking energy juice. And the whole range of alchemical experience that could be available in tesco.

So I take it you use Rustica powdered? Any idea about the weighed dose? I haven't tried it snuffed and powdered properly and I haven't been able to will myself towards the 3rd coffee grinder since the second broke

Nice to hear from you

I just made some rustica snuff, and have tried it out several times over the weekend. I must say, it is awesome! Completely uplifting, and mentally sharpening, you just feel great. Because of this I advise to use it with caution, because I can definitely feel a pull towards redosing, but nothing to bad.

I baked my rustica leaves on a very low temperature (220ish) for about 15 minutes. Then i put it into my mortar and pestle, and added a tiny lime rock (calcium hydroxide). I very thouroughly mixed those together, and when it was really dry and powdery, I added some distilled water and mixed it a second time. I then put the wet mixture back into the oven until it was completely dry. Grind one more time with the mortar and pestle, and voila! You have your rustica snuff. Some people "cure" it by adding an essential oil and putting it in the fridge. I might do that eventually, but right now I see no need.

I don't usually measure it out, I just take a pinch of it on my thumb, and sniff it off. Burns and hurts like hell for about 5 seconds, then goes away fairly quickly. A very nice and effective way to deliver the nictoine, and a much smoother ride than cigs.