*~Cosmic Giggle
I think everything contained within this post falls into the “taking” and “extracting” drugs category. If I failed the test of “No discussion is allowed about selling drugs, buying drugs, procuring drugs, prices of drugs, trading drugs and trafficking of drugs.” then I sincerely apologize and it was unintentional. “Procuring” seems a little open to interpretation considering the nature of this forum.

Ready?

Past:
I’ve been interested in psychedelics since learning about them in 6th grade DARE class. Upon learning about “hallucinogens” (this is how DARE always referred to psychedelics), I was enthralled. Though at that time, I never thought I’d “do drugs”. Hallucinogens arrested my attention immediately though.

Before I ever tried psychedelics, I had a dream I took acid because I was thinking about it so much. This dream, while not exactly like taking psychedelics, is still to this day the only dream I can recall where I took a psychedelic and felt the effects. The effects only went slightly beyond my imagination of what psychedelics were like at that time (I specifically remember tasting colors and seeing sounds, very colorful and “groovy”). Never had a dream about being on psychedelics again. Luckily the real thing was right around the corner. I don’t remember many dreams, but I remember telling my friends all about that one at lunch the next day.

After being severely pressured to smoke weed at 14 y/o and subsequently having a great time, I was off to the races several months later when I got to high school. I knew I was definitely going to pursue LSD and mushrooms. I didn’t even know what DMT was yet at that point. They didn’t teach us about DMT in DARE. First I headed to the internet to learn everything I could about this magic. “What else did DARE lie about?”

Researching Psychedelics led me to the underground (I don’t mean the dark net/tor boards. That wasn’t a thing at this time) I spent most of my free time from mid teens-early 20s sitting at my computer participating in forums pertaining to drug knowledge, trying to soak up, and give, as much information as possible.

After cannabis, I finally tried Mushrooms (instant love) and “ecstasy” at 15. LSD, real MDMA, and DMT at 16 (as well as all the other drugs you’d find at a fest like ketamine, RC’s, coke, benzos, etc. but never made a habit out of that stuff). However, I also started consuming opiates at 15 and it became a problem within a year. Oxy, dilly, and opana were widely available at my school. After high school, IV heroin was the only opiate I used. My enjoyment of psychedelics declined as my opiate addiction increased. Specifically, the more addicted I became, the less enjoyable my mushroom trips were becoming. I didn’t really have this problem with LSD, DMT, or MDMA, but mushrooms are my absolute favorite.

Although many psychedelics can “show you what a jerk you are”, this rings much more true for me with mushrooms. My mushroom trips have been tainted by my opiate addiction for over a decade now. Before I started bathing in the guilt of being an addict, my mushroom trips were more “profound” than any of my other psychedelic trips. Mushrooms are able to demonstrate my unity with the universe much more so than other psychedelics I’ve tried. And when I feel that oneness, being connected to every atom in the cosmos, the euphoria is…ineffable.

Since opiate addiction, mushrooms have basically said “we’ve told you what you need to do, you know what you need to do, and until you get your act together there’s nothing else we can do for you” and so I’ve had only several mild mushroom trips in the last decade+, never eating more than a gram of pan cyans in that time.

I’ve got 5 years clean now, and by clean I mean I’ve been on suboxone. Down to 2mg/day since starting at 16mg/day. My passion for psychedelic exploration is still strong, although I am still scared to do a deep dive with mushrooms due to not feeling completely “cured” of my opiate addiction (no one is ever truly cured, but I still perform my junkie ritual and inject myself with water or buprenorphine filled syringes. I don’t get high, just the satisfaction of the needle plunge. Pathetic, I know. I’m sure someone can relate.)

It was an edible cannabis trip that actually got me to call it quits on heroin. Part of me thinks a strong mushroom trip might be what I need to give me the kick in the pants to stop putting needles into myself just to shoot up water out of an old spoon. But, obviously I already realize what I need to do. I know what I need to do. So a bigger part of me thinks I need to just do it on my own so I can approach the mushroom with less fear.

Present:
Recently found some 11+ year old shredded MHRB from a now defunct botanical vendor who had a pretty public prosecution. After first extraction attempt in 2011 with that bark, got close to 2%, but don’t remember exact numbers and nothing was written down on paper back then. Can remember being ecstatic with the first yield though as it was *almost* 2%. Not fond of approximations when talking numbers this small, but calling it 1.75% would be a fairly accurate, conservative estimate.

Anyways, that same leftover shredded MHRB has been sitting double-ziploc’d in a duffle bag for 11+ years. It’s survived multiple moves in multiple cities and even spent several years in a storage locker. Mostly forgot about it until this year. (Knew it was there, thought it was a very small amount left, didn’t realize there almost a half pound)

Wanted new bark, but also to see what the old bark had to offer. With this old bark, a side by side experiment took place. Using 100g old bark for two side by side extractions (200g total) with cybs max ion tek, different acids were used for each extraction while eliminating all other variables to see which acid performed better. The yield on the 11+ year old bark declined considerably (less than 1%) compared to the first attempt back in 2011.

Initial assumption (which proved to be correct) was that the age, and probably storage technique, of the bark led to degradation of alkaloids. Less likely options considered: cybs tek wasn’t as good as the tek used in 2011 (google “mr kush a/b mhrb extraction pictorial write-up” if you care to see) or that something got messed up in the process.

To be sure, the exact same experiment was performed with brand new bark and yielded just over 2% on one, and just under 2% on the other. Probably safe to assume it was indeed alkaloid degradation over time that accounted for poor results on the old bark.

So, after those initial experiments there were 4 extraction vessels containing the basic MHRB soup leftover from cybs tek. 2 vessels with old bark, and 2 with new bark. After Naptha pulls completed, and letting the vessels sit for awhile, xylene pulls were performed on the used bark to see what could be obtained, and what, if any, differences there would be from the old bark and new bark. There were indeed some interesting differences.
First recrystallizations and enhanced leaf/changa attempts ensued after. Both fun, interesting, and question-raising projects.

Anyways, hoping results can be posted so they may answer some of the questions I had before these experiments were started (acid efficiency & alkaloid degradation over time.) I am hoping to gain full membership status to document these experiments in the extraction section of the forum.

Having been a very active member on a few similar forums from 2005-2015, I usually see familiar usernames across these landscapes. This is a new username I started using a few years ago, but I’m hoping as a bonus of diving deeper into the nexus I will run across some of my old internet buddies to reconnect. Maybe my back story will give me away and you can send me a pm if you’re also using a different name these days. I’ve already seen a couple of you; Will reach out soon Kinda purposely lost touch with all people/things from my past life to try to move on from my opiate addiction and start fresh.

Tidbits:
I’m a heterosexual male, but I like women with lots of body hair that tend to a more masculine than feminine personality.

I gave up my career as a professional artist for something that keeps me more active/physical. I have issues being physically active in my free time.

I don’t fit in on either side of politics.

I never feel more fulfilled than when I’m able to aid someone in having a beautiful psychedelic experience. Perhaps a fulfilling career path is possible.

I start new projects very often, artistic and/or scientific in nature.

My sense of humor is different, and often doesn’t come through via text only. It even evades people IRL because I kid with such a genuine “sincerity” that people tend to think I’m actually serious when I couldn’t be less serious. Sarcasm and satire pervade me.

If there was one person I could have dinner with, dead or alive: Terence McKenna.

I’ve had more sub-breakthrough trips with spice than I’ve had full breakthroughs due to using inefficient vape methods. I wasted so much in those early days. Never tried ayahuasca.

I use cannabis daily, only in edible form at night time to help me sleep.

If you made it this far, you now know more about me than my entire family does.

Future:
Put yourself in a place where the cosmic giggle can get at you.

*~Cosmic Giggle

Yo yo yo, welcome to the Nexus

Hope you enjoy your stay friend. Feel free to chat around, great place if you love psychedelics and want to grow, just remember the Attitude section (https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/Attitude_Page) It's really, really really important

cheers!

Welcome Cosmic Giggle. Thank you for sharing so much about yourself! It sounds like you've been on the psychedelic road for a while.



Nope certainly not pathetic. Different trials of varying degrees and intensities impact all of us in a wide permutation of ways. This just happens to be part of your personal striving through life. Be kind to yourself, and always keep striving.



Was this MHRB every subjected to long periods in direct sunlight or high temperatures? Just curious. There have been some people that have shared great yields using near decade old if not decade old bark.



This happens to you too, eh When it happens to me I always feel those are my best jokes or funny moments, but I suppose not so much intersubjectively

It's a pleasure meeting you.

One love

Over half my life now.



Neither. It was in an opaque duffel bag, and always in a closed, temperature controlled room (closets & storage) with no windows/ambient lighting.

My best guess is that air led to alkaloid degradation in this instance. The ziploc bags weren’t air tight, and neither was the duffel bag.

The shredded bark from this old vendor was quite shredded. “Stringy” would be a good adjective, as I could grab some between my fingers from the top of the tall, skinny ziploc bag, and when I pulled, about half the bark in the bag would come out with the little bit I had pinched between my fingers because the fibers were all strung together.

“Shredded” bark from a different vendor means giant chips, some 3-4in in length. A few that were too thick to cut with high quality pruning shears. Apparently shredded is a very subjective term. Hopefully it at least means better preservation for long term storage.

Anyways, perhaps the large amount of surface area in the old bark played a role as well. I can’t think of any other reasons, but I’m not very educated on this stuff.

Definitely was not caused by light or high temperatures though.

I’ve been trying to finish my write up on this particular subject (extraction from this old bark), but it goes hand in hand with another thread I’m going to be posting about my first jungle spice results, so I’d like to post both threads at the same time. Coming soon.



There’s some sick part of me that, even though the joke doesn’t land, enjoys watching peoples faces when they think I’m serious about something absurd or “weird.”
Once I realized even the people that knew me well couldn’t tell if I was serious or not, I would perform “social experiments” when conversing with strangers and say some shit that should be an obvious joke, but with such sincerity that the stranger takes it seriously. I’d get a good internal laugh at it, picturing their faces and remembering their responses to the absurdity.
Laughs are better shared with friends/people, but these little moments could keep a smile on my face for awhile during the darker periods of my life.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Nice meeting/learning about you as well.

Please do share your results. The more data the better, and maybe we can ascertain some specifics about the cause for loss of alkaloid content.

The looks people give tend to be pretty priceless to me as well. Sometimes the flatter a joke is told, the better it is, subjectively speaking for weirdos like us

One love