With a couple of drops of a liquid hallucinogen under his tongue and therefore the smell of incense within the air, Texas resident Frank Ramirez says he can transport himself to a special world. Eyes shut and legs crossed, he first feels warm and flushed. Then the push of the drug swirls into his head and, Ramirez says, he becomes "one with the space ," ready to see and talk with long-deceased relatives.
"Sometimes I cry or laugh," Ramirez says. "It's a spiritual trip. a quick glimpse into a gorgeous world we do not even know yet."
Ramirez is on drugs, but as a resident of Texas he's breaking no laws. He has been ingesting Mexican mint , a once-obscure member of the Labiatae that ascetic Central American shamans have used for hundreds of years . Now the herb is as easy to shop for on the web as a best-seller, and it's celebrated in countless YouTube videos starring dazed and confused-looking highschool and college-age kids. Traffic to sites that sell salvia and other drugs is increasing.
In this episode of Full nerd dlss non blurry Edition Half-Life
When it involves buying powerful mood-altering drugs online, salvia is simply the tip of the iceberg. At a time when authorities are cracking down on illegal sale of steroids and prescribed drugs online, substances like kratom and Mexican prickly poppy, which pack a psychedelic and narcotic-like punch, are flourishing on the web . Authorities are starting to note .
PC World purchased 19 supposedly psychoactive substances from a spread of online sources, then we asked researchers at the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi to research the products we received and to elucidate the risks involved in taking them. Their verdict: Most of the substances--for the foremost part a spread of roots, mushrooms, and leaves from round the world--really can get you high. But some could also cause you to very sick or maybe kill you.
"With a number of these substances it's like playing Russian routlette together with your life," says Dr. Ikhlas Khan, assistant director of the NCNPR. "With others the danger is on par with smoking one [tobacco] ciagrette." It's impossible to understand the precise risk without asking a lab to check what you've got , he says, adding: "There may be a lot of misiniformation about these substances on the web and what their effects are on people who take them."
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| Psychedelics for sale |
Not Your Father's vine Seeds
Determined teens and thrill-seekers of all ages have always experimented with legal ways to urge high--eating vine seeds, for instance , or smoking catnip. But experts say that the web has changed things: even as it's made other previously hard-to-find products more accessible, it's making substances formerly used only by obscure Amazon shamans easy to find out about, find, and buy.
Search for "salvia" on YouTube, and you will find many video testimonials from people that have taken the drug. Hands-on types can visit sites like NeuroSoup to look at step-by-step tutorials on the way to squeeze venom from Colorado River toads and extract from it a strong hallucinogen.
Can't find a Colorado River toad locally? Bouncing Bear Botanicals will sell you a live one for $150 or an "adult male and feminine pair" for $250.
The owner of Bouncing Bear Botanicals, Jon Sloan, says that sales at his site have grown considerably over the past year, but he declined to reveal specific sales figures. Other sites, including Shaman's Garden and Herbal Fire Botanicals, didn't answer our requests for comment.
Techniques wont to increase the potency of herbs have improved in recent years. Experts say that sellers have learned to isolate and amplify many of the psychoactive elements within present herbs, subsequently selling extracts of the substances at 10X or 30X the traditional potency. Salvia is sold in extracts at concentrations of up to 60X and kratom at concentrations of up to 30X. "This is not the stuff that youngsters were buying just years ago. these things has been engineered to deliver a way stronger high," says Dr. Howard Samuels, executive of the Wonderland Center, a drug rehabilitation center in l. a. .
Sloan says that the Internet's reach to places like Central America has also enabled indigenous tribes to travel online and sell their native herbs to distributors. "All of a sudden, with a second hand PC and dial-up Internet account, these isolated tribes have how to sell plants they need quick access to," Sloan says.
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