need advice of experienced cactus gurus...

i know that there are many more entheogenic cacti than just the standards that you hear about (L. williamsii, L. diffusa, T. pachanoi, T. peruvianus)

on entheogen dot i found a list of many, many more psychoactive cacti and succulents, many of them being of the "living rock" variety. looking up some pictures of some of these other plants i've noticed several that look VERY VERY close to identical to a number of small plants you see for sale at most garden shops that carry cacti.

things such as Ariocarpus fissuratus, Corypantha macromeris, Mammillaria heyderii, Ariocarpus retusus, etc.

I would like more information on use (traditional or otherwise) of any such cacti, and if possible information on alkaloids present and dosages. I have tried a wide variety of psychoactives (including entheogens such as lsd, psilocybian mushrooms, strong salvia divinorum extracts, lsa, 2C-B, mdma, etc.) but something i have never tried are cacti-based substances. the reverance with which they are treated, and the spectacular stories of their potentials greatly intrigue me. however, i never approach a new tool uninformed and do not wish to go into this blindly. with the minimal research i've done (on this topic), i'd be led to believe i could simply walk into the garden center, purchase a few large potted plants and walk out with one of the most important aspects of a particularly moving mind-opening experience. please, if anyone has first hand experience or knowledge of such things, tell me what you know. if you know of any good cacti-related message boards, or anywhere else i may get a satisfactory answer, please post a link. and trust me, i already know about erowid, so don't bother telling me about that.

i'm greatly curious, cautious, and optimistic. i know most of these probably DONT contain mescaline - if i wanted mescaline i'd go for san pedro. i want something different and enlightening. if you can direct me towards the knowledge i desire, i'd be greatly appreciative.

 

come on, i don't believe that NOBODY here knows anything about this stuff......

 

well i know that peyote (L. williamsii) contains mescaline, its legal in canada (the cactus itself), and its used in some sort of native ritual. thats pretty much as far as my knowledge in this subject goes...i am also interested in trying peyote, although i havent got a clue where to find any

have you checked erowid?

 

yes. i'm interested in peyote and san pedro and stuff, but thats not the point of my post. almost all information i've found relates to mescaline-bearing cacti, such as peyote, and thats not what i'm looking for.

 

I believe Shulgin is working on a new book about cacti alkaloids... Don't quote me though.

 

I remember reading in TIHKAL that Shulgin is indeed nosing around in some cactii-centered alkaloids...I believe he named a few of the other active constituents found in peyote and such mescaline-bearing cactus, though there's no mention of other cactii.

From Legal Highs by Adam Gottlieb:

Link

 

Maybe it's just me, but I have problems when I wander away from the traditional sacraments. It's like, things just don't flow right if they're forced like RCs and unorthodox plants. There's a reason why the sacraments are what they are. Ya know, 3 b-y-tutti-frutti just will NOT be the same as psilocybin or LSD. I really don't care HOW LONG or HOW FAR someone looks for an acid-substitute, the fact of the matter is THERE AIN'T ONE.

Put your energies into a pure sacred source for 25, and forget about mooptey-boop, this exciting new herb from Tibet that all your e-vendors will be creaming about because, with shit and the placebo effect, they can make money.

 

LSD-25 is a designer drug, don't get your shit twisted...all designer drugs, including LSD, come from various vegal/fungal sources; so don't bash on designer drugs because you're afraid of the unknown.

Besides the tedious psychedelic research I alone have conducted, there are HUNDREDS of people who have experienced "3 b-y-tutti-frutti" and "mooptey-boop, this exciting new herb from Tibet" for themselves and understand the nature of the compounds.

I agree that traditional sacraments such as psilocybe mushrooms and various mescaline-containing cactii are amazing psychedelic compounds, however, it would be recommended to shut your mouth about cutting-edge technology that you have absolutely no understanding of before you make yourself look foolish...

kthx.

 

thats a little hostile. yikes!

at any rate i see both points.....

personally i prefer acid or mushrooms to some of the "newer" substances i've tried (which are limited to a select few)

i've got to say ecstacy has a lot of good potential in the right setting and mindset, but that when i've used it i haven't had a good one of either of those, and just took it for fun. and it WAS fun, but not useful to me, so i don't take it anymore, except on RARE occasions with mushrooms or something.

2C-B is even more fun than ecstacy, and more psychedelic, but it also feels a bit more shallow to me. still amazing, and it has a ton of potential, but it doesn't have the same amount of a spiritual feel that mushrooms and acid have.

the worst is DXM. i will never again, under any circumstances, take it for anything other than a cough.

but the fact is that many of these things (DXM excluded) are related to more classical substances and have just as much potential, even if they aren't on quite the preferred wavelength right now. after all, MDA came around quite some time ago, got a lot of fans. MDMA was a legal substitute for it for a while, and then when it was outlawed it was STILL generally preferred to MDA (then of course 2C-B was a legal MDMA substitute, then that was outlawed, too) all have their fanbases, but the MDA "copycat" was the one that everyone seemed to love the most. sure, so far we haven't found something that most acid or mushroom or mescaline fans like BETTER than the classics, but it's likely we can find something like that in the future, or that tastes will change and people will learn to use some of the newer substances in just as meaningful ways as the old ones. which is possible, but would require a shift in the way the whole of the young psychedelic community has been thinking and behaving over the last 20 years, which is unlikely.

i think that these chemicals have potential, but due to the reckless behavior of the youth today when dealing with drugs "recreationally" the potential is highly unlikely to be reached on a large scale. acid and mushrooms can do it more easily for most people, i think.

 

Adam Gottlieb has a book called 'petoye and other psychoactive cacti' Whilst Ihave heard there are some inaccuracies in the book I have it myself and there is a decent amount of information on some of the less well know cacti species,

Mmelody

 

after seeing gottlieb's book about "legal highs" reproduced so widely on the internet, i don't really have any desire to read anything else by him unless it's VERY recommended and i've heard a lot of good things about how accurate it is, because the legal highs book is mostly b.s.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love tripping even on some rc's, but nothing holds a candle to LSD, recreationally or if you're the "enlightenment" type.