Greetings all

It's that time of year, and I thought I'd share my experiences quitting cigarettes, with a little help from a relatively-unknown plant ally. Obviously, by definition, all quit attempts are "work in progress" and I will faithfully update this thread should I return to the dark side.

B/G: Pack a day smoker for about 20 years, three previous quit attempts, each good for ~12 months, before hubristic relapse aka "One won't hurt!" Lengthy period of e-cig use, but that only led back to the cellophane hell. So, determined to make good on my promises to the Universe, self & others.

Having finally started working with salvia properly, I was puzzled to find myself daydreaming about laburnum, of all things. WikiP soon cleared things up: the alkaloid it contains, cytisine, has been used extensively throughout former Soviet countries as a quitting-therapy. Truly, salvia's reputation as a "master plant" is richly deserved!

Laburnum is surprisingly hard-to-find these days, it was common when I was a kid, but successions of risk-averse parents must have chopped them all down. In any event, I doubt safe, non-lethal extraction is an option for a ghetto-chemist.

A Bulgarian company still manufacture the tablets under the name Tabex. The idea is you flood with 6 tablets for the first few days, then taper down to 1/day over the course of a month. Cytisine is an acetylcholine agonist, and has strong binding affinity for the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, more so even than nicotine. You continue to smoke when you feel like it for the first few days of treatment, becoming progressively less drawn to nicotine as you do so. For me, it worked. Basically, as the cytisine takes hold, you find yourself thinking less about cigarettes. The itch subsides, you can power through the first few hours of the day without lighting up, and you might permit yourself one at say, lunchtime. But this first cigarette feels like the tenth of a chain-smoking binge. No relief/joy, just a very dry mouth and lips, and mild nausea. You extinguish it about halfway though, and you say, dang, that was nasty, I won't be in a hurry to have another.

My daily consumption dropped pretty exponentially: 20-14-8-4-2-0-0-0.... without any sense of acute withdrawal.

Essentially, it seems to make cigarettes taste and feel like they did the very first time you ever tried one i.e. not very nice at all. This is kinda exciting, because it hopefully means that I won't be carrying any happy cigarette memories around when someone eventually offers me one again. I have my final part-used pack, on which I've written my final perceptions in marker: "Does nothing, feels horrible!"

NB. I have not noticed any adverse interactions between cytisine and cannabis or changa.

Thanks to Gaia, Salvia & Laburnum

Thanks for sharing. Are you aware of any other plants which contain this compound?

Cytisine is the principle alkaloid of the old mescal bean, Sophora secundiflora.
Seems similar to tobacco in shamanic use and toxicity.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look into this. After quitting heroin, benzos, cocaine, methadone, etc, i find cigarettes to be the hardest kick of all. Hell, i haven't even tried on over a decade. The death of a 33yr. old acquaintance recently from an asthma attack has made it an imperative now though. I wake up in the morning and have a very difficult time until i have coffee and that opens my lungs.

I'm going to look into this.

Theres a very recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine on cytisine vs NRT for smoking cessation:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/...7764#t=articleDiscussion

Update:

1 month in and all still good, no relapses.

Def the easiest quitting I've experienced. No side effects from the Tabex.

I only really noticed the absence of cigarettes on the days I stepped the dosage down, and that was only a fleeting thought usually around mid-afternoon.

I've just started my second cycle. I was prepared for the sudden boost in cytisine to make me nauseous, but that didn't happen. I have had a couple of headaches, unusually, probably due to increased BP.

My lung and oral tissues are now letting me know they're re-adjusting to the new normal!

I imagine tar is quite an effective antimicrobial barrier. Perhaps the loss of it leads to a slight increase in sensitivity?

I have found syrian rue to help with this too. It has the same effect of making me not want to smoke and if I do it feels like I've smoke a whole bunch.

Thanks for this!

^.^Maybe this was mentioned before, but tobacco smoke contains harmines.

^.^ On another thread. The poster said he needed much more spice to get equivalent effects once he quit!

=^.^=i wonder just how effective hamalas are at stopping cravings....
if very effective it could be a great new way for quitting tobacco,
"ahhNO officer those seeds are for quitting cigarettes'
Seriously though, kratom might work pretty good.
"Oh i see, and these bags of kratom?"
"for quitting cigarettes"
"and this pipe?"
"tobacco"

Cytisus scoparius aka. Scotch Broom
In my home town it was planted all over the place for bank stabilization until they realized many people are allergic. As an early teen I would collect, ferment, dry, and smoke the flowers for a slight somewhat nicotine-like buzz.

Another update, now I'm 6 months in: still 0 cigarettes

The effects of this treatment are really quite remarkable, I've essentially 'forgotten' that I ever smoked, right down to the neuro-receptor level. No amount of the 'common' triggers have induced me to even think about reaching for one: stressful events, parties, other smokers, drinks, post-meal etc.

I was really wary about touching mapacho after, though, as I thought it might 're-awaken' my 'dormant' (?) nicotine habit, but it didn't. Admittedly, I've only had the lightest of tokes, on only one occasion, to test the waters so to speak, but I was fine afterwards. My half-finished pack of cigarettes is still at the back of a rarely-used drawer.

I've also acquired some rapé, and a small pinch every few weeks hasn't caused me any problems either, although I note with interest that even non-smokers can apparently become habituated to regular rapé use fairly easily, so I'll definitely be careful with that too.

Namaste!

Glad to hear you are still going strong! Quitting cigarettes is not something easily achieved! I quit last October after many failed attempts. I don't know what changed exactly but at some point I just really didn't want to smoke anymore. So here I am 8 months or so later cig free and feeling great!

Keep up the good work!

Shameless self-bump as the season approaches when some smokers start to think about quitting.

Almost one year in and still good.

Also discovered that chewing a little dried calamus root (another traditional plant remedy reputed to help with nicotine withdrawal) makes a nice admixture to peppermint gum. It has a bitter, spicy taste, which I find pleasant, and it seems to bring some calmness and focus too. Would have liked to have found this when I had just quit.

We bought two packs of tabex...we have those two moons already - still waiting for the right moment..., but yeah...we're almost ready

You are wise to wait, Intezam: like every other kind of trip, timing is crucial. Good luck, and don't hesitate to holler here or by PM, should you need to...

Also, I found this made an excellent wallpaper for the first few months:

Although, they forgot to include: "Over the next 12 months, your gums will bleed like hell at the merest provocation, but your dentist will be cool with that, cause it shows they are regenerating...!"

They also didnt mention your sense of smell will improve so much that when you walk down the street you can tell which households had beans for dinner and who has a penchant for not bathing before sex... super-smell is one of the more dubious super powers.

I just hit 10 years

Is Tabex at all related to Chantix? I haven't found anything so I believe not but thought I would double check here, thanks.