After finally raising the cash for a crop of cacti, and reading so many good things about cactus resin, my friend harvested and prepared his cacti for a visionary free day. What follows are his accounts, emailed to me not long ago, which he asked me to share with you fine people.
"The cacti sacrificed for this venture were new from
http://www.trichocereus.com/ (I forget the rules regarding vendors, and I couldn’t find them; if I’m in offense I’ll remove the reference, or a mod can do it for me…), so their potencies were unknown. 920g of inner green and white flesh (not core) were cut up into pieces the approximate size of dice, frozen/thawed twice, then added to 1/3 - 1/2 gallon of water. The heat for cooking only once exceeded 80C, and was around 70C for most of it; two cooks of 5 hours were done with another freeze/thaw cycle between them, and both liquids reduced in the oven at less than 85C (the liquid itself never exceeding 65C) for 6+ hours. More than 25g of resin was collected, mixed with an unknown quantity of sugar for stabilizing (<10g), and 20g of this mix was placed into 19 0.12g 00 caps.
12:40pm: 3 caps totaling 3.5g and the liquid used to clean resin-coated fingers and utensils (<200mL of tinted liquid) were consumed with orange juice.
1:40pm: So far I only felt a slight body high, so I consumed the other 4 caps (4.5g). My tripping partner arrived and took 6 caps at once.
2:40pm: Still no visuals, but body high is increasing, and I feel like something is building up; the euphoria is present, and listening to music is very relaxing and engaging at the same time. The body high is not at all comparable to previous cacti experiences, which were themselves very weak; this time only a cannabis-like sedation of the muscles was felt, lacking the tingly-ness that I so enjoyed from my previous trials. The Hanging Cable, Lamp Shade and Ceiling tests were all negative for both of us*. I consumed 3 more caps weighing 2.7g. My tripping partner also only felt very mild effects and consumed another 2 caps.
4:40pm: Still not a thing, not even the smallest visual effect that can’t be written off as placebo. The tests again yielded nothing between us. The body high is gone and I feel almost back to normal, so another cap weighing 1.6g was consumed, along with 2g of resin dissolved in orange juice (which is surprisingly effective at masking the flavor). If this doesn’t work then I’m done for the day. 14.3g of resin in 4 hours should do something, damnit! My partner gained only mild euphoric effects from the 8 caps he consumed.
9:40pm: Nothing. What a waste. It’s looking like good ol’ dependable spice will be my vessel tonight.
Just my luck. It looks as though once again (3rd time, 3 different vendors) I got stuck with impotent cacti, and at this point hundreds of $ and many hours have been poured into an effort that has not at all been worth it. I’m never buying a cactus again unless I know for certain that it is a verifiably potent strain and worth the hassle. Are there any suggestions/offerings/recommendations out there? I’ll even buy a cutting of a potent strain if anyone out there has one to spare.
*These tests are things that my tripping partners and I consider indicators of hallucination, and they’ve occurred consistently with innumerable trials of DMT, psilocin and LSD, as well as the one time that the cactus tea worked: The ceiling, being stucco, moves around forming shapes and patterns, resembling worms scrambling about; the lamp shade continuously deforms and exhibits unusual proportions; and hanging cables wiggle and dance around like there’s a breeze moving them, or they resemble snakes writhing around.