Is no one else combining cannabis with the cactus? Cannabis definitely intensifies the experience. It is unquestionably safe. And it helps with nausea. Seems like the upside is as great or greater than the maoi's, without any toxicity issues to worry about. A little bit goes a long way. A few puffs here and there over the course of the trip is quite nice.

I lost interest in cannabis before I ever got mescaline, so I have not tried that.
In high school I did use cannabis on LSD nearly every time. I never noticed, or heard of, any potentiation until I accidentally encountered a strain of cannabis that very strongly increased the potency of LSD. It was the wildest trip of my life.
That LSD boosting effect was rare, but was found in other strains to a milder degree. The original bag gradually lost its potentiating potency over time. The effect clearly wasn't from THC, I suspect it may have been from a normally less abundant terpene or perhaps an unstable cannabinoid.

When boosting mescaline with cannabis, are some strains far more effective than others?
Is there any way to ensure better success? [Like using only sativa strains, using slightly unripe buds, etc.]
I'm not sure I'd want to bother with cannabis if I were not sure it would increase the effects of psychedelics. If I grew a crop and it didn't boost mescalines potency, the cannabis would be effectively worthless

For me, with both mushrooms and cactus, cannabis - regardless of the strain - intensifies the experience. I found that with mushrooms, which on their own can be foggy and confusing at higher doses, that fogginess and "mushroom-like" quality is amplified. With cactus the main effects seem to be increased visuals and reduction of nausea. The mental clarity of the cactus experience seems to cut through any mental haze that often occurs with cannabis.

Edit:
Plus, I forgot to mention, another nice thing about smoking cannabis during a cactus trip is that, for several weeks after the trip, when you smoke cannabis it brings back some of the feeling of the trip.

I used cannabis daily for nearly 20 years and I never noticed it causing a potentiation in the way that NMDA agonists do. When I stopped using cannabis my psychedelic experiences benefitted as well, though I am sure that is subjective.

Predosing hasn't ever worked well for me.
I read about how traditionally Ayahuasca is administered often with a single cup of brew with full effects and that many people have reported better results with the ingredients combined. So I started doing that and it worked well.
I have noticed that when I have a tolerance going for psychedelics that potentiation doesn't overcome this and I wonder if it increases tolerance more than usual.
I have done a number of experiments with potentiation using competitive enzymatic inhibition using psychedelic phenethylamines and have had startling results with co-administration but nothing so spectacular from pre or post dosing, which always has that same diminished effect you get from redosing.
0_o

Cannabis increases the strength of psychedelic trips, especially the visual aspects of the trip. There's nothing subjective about that. I'm surprised you never observed that during your 20 years of experience. The term "mescajuana" has been used to refer to the combo of cactus and cannabis. Those who have tried it understand how well the two substances work together. Sometimes it is really surprising to realize how fragmented knowledge about such matters still remains between various internet communities.

I found cannabis to have its own impact upon vision but not any form of potentiation, I felt it dulled the trips. I found it suppressed my dreams as well. When I quit (and i do not mean didn't smoke but literally didn't have it in my system and I used to smoke several grams a day) not only did my psychedelic trips become more vivid with increased visual aspects my dreams also returned in vivid detail.

Personally after a few years of experimenting with psychedelics I often regretted using cannabis when I was tripping and I would only smoke at the end of the experience. I can't say I ever found cannabis to intensify the trip. Nitrous oxide, ketamine, and nicotine did. In fact the first time I saw felt disgusted at what cannabis was doing to my, my life and my mental health was the first time I used DMT, a few hits of it and I didn't use cannabis again for 6 months and when I started using it again my approach had changed. I had thought I was using Cannabis to help me live but I had that backwards, I was living to use cannabis and it was nothing to be proud of.

I often found cannabis took something from the experience, dulled it as well as my thinking and feeling during it, however I usually didn't care because I was high. I've often gotten high with friends and then done nothing, just sat around smoking more. It was something to do, it was entertaining but in the end I had absolutely nothing to show for it except lost time. I found that was also true when I was using psychedelics. When I didn't use cannabis during my trips I was more active, more creative and productive. Often with Cannabis and mescaline I would just sit around and not do much.

I liked how weed affected time, hours would seem short, so I would often use it before heavy work or intense martial arts training, but this same effect I liked at times also detracted from my trips, but if things were a bit more intense than I liked I would use cannabis to dull the trip and my thinking. In meditation cannabis did affect the visual aspect of my minds eye and my minds ear, I could lay down and see anything and hear anything I wanted and I would use this on purpose but it wasn't psychedelic.
Cannabis did seem to make my mild HPPD more intense and visual, but only to a degree.

After decades of using cannabis it wasn't doing me any good and I wasn't benefiting from it at all so I stopped using it except for on occasion. I haven't smoked it in years now, but ironically I dream about smoking it, which I couldn't do if I was using it.

I do like the way a small bit of caapi changes the way I see things.
That is a very interesting effect.

Several grams a day is quite heavy use IMO. I've never approached anything that heavy so I can't speak to how heavy, chronic use like that would affect tripping. I try to make cannabis use something special to look forward to. I try not to smoke on back to back days or more than one time on any one day. Although certainly I have broken those rules before on numerous occassions, especially when the cannabis was helping with a physical problem.

And I take the same approach with psychedelics. They are something special to look forward to. I always trip outdoors. Its important to put intention into the experience. I find that using milestones that occur in nature, such as the full moon or an equinox or solstice helps with this.

I think when cannabis is treated with more respect it holds a lot of potential to enhance psychedelic states. A heavy cannabis tolerance is going to diminish the benefit. Going in too deep with cannabis into a heavy stoned state is not really conducive to enhancing the experience. Its the sort of thing where less is sometimes more.

And different psychedelics are different. I've used cannabis with LSD and with mushrooms and with cactus. I like its effect on cactus the most. But I also like cactus the best of those 3. And I've done those 3 without cannabis too. When you figure out the dosage and tolerance issues and setting, etc. then cannabis can add something very nice to the experience. It definitely brings out more of the visual nature of the cactus trip, not so much in terms of colors or the concrete, embedded detail that is so characteristic of cactus. But more so in terms of webbed floating patterns that overlay the visual field. Cannabis really seems to bring that out strongly in cactus.

@ 0_o, the cannabis side effect you mention about sitting around not doing anything is from my perspective a benefit. Sometimes it helps for me to slow down and and run a different train of thought for a little while. So I guess it may look like I’m not doing any thing (maybe playing a video game, I’ll go two for two) but chances are I’m churning something over in my head. So, so easy for me to over indulge though. Cannabis is my thing, the way people nerd out on wine I do with cannabis. Another way I categorize things is whether I can continue to be willfully ignorant and with cannabis I can know I have something to do, usually tedious and if I hit the bong I can always find a reason as to why it just makes more sense to do it tomorrow. That could just be me though, and the weed is innocent.

albeit i love cannabis, id be lying to say that it dosnt entirely change the experience and that the lifestyle of chronic use is one that offers a unique perspective when journeying. without a daily or habitual experience like cannabis and with the mind free of its short term memory dulling effect, the cactus/mescaline experience is a very different thing. atleast it has been for me and mine. ive still smoked through a hundred+ ceremonies shamelessly, joint after joint, pax after pax, eating edibles, etc (weed cacao) i just didnt get as much from them as the times im so blown i end up forgetting to smoke or intentionally dont smoke. just super blasted and drunk driving my spaceship kind of feels. when i abstain theres a clarity i feel and my experience is deepended by this as if it were a coeeffecient to my gnosis.

Cannabis is best used in moderation. This is even more so when it comes to using it during a cactus trip. A few puffs here and there during the trip are all that you need. It adds a little something extra. Helps with the nausea too. But I understand why many would prefer not to do the combo.

Its good to have you back on the forum Chaska.

i think for me its partly a projection from my subconscious feels bout being a chronic cannabis user, but like i said the non times seem to have had a greater chance ime to have more profound/long lasting effect. wether it be intentionally done or discovered in hindsight. perhaps the tolerance to cannabis is robbing a chronic user of its full entheogenic value, especially during the a cactus trip

really both sides seem valid