Upon a visit to a gift store in Daytona, FLA recently, I noticed a display of smokable products with names like “Wizard Toke” and “Maui Wowie”. The company that makes them (Intenational Oddities) has a web site, I will not post it here but you can probably guess the URL.
Now I know the point of these products was to simulate marijuana. When I queried the clerk if they actually produced an effect, he said yes but it was short and mild compared to pot.
So my questions are
1). Does this stuff actually make you high?
2). If so, what is in it to produce a buzz and remain legal at the same time.
I ordered from either that company or a similar one when I was a stupid teenager; they advertise in High Times. The crap they sent me didn’t yield any kind of perceptible effects after 5 joints. Also, it tasted very harsh. From the looks of the pictures on various sites selling this stuff, they try very hard to get other plants to look like marijuana They sometimes apparently compress pieces of other plants together to look like pot and give them names often attributed to marijuana strains.
From one site that sells the stuff:
Broom straw and ginseng? Suffice it to say, most of this stuff will have little, if any, psychoactive effect when smoked. A notable exception is jimson weed, which I’m actually quite shocked that they’re allowed to sell for human consumption. Not only is it a potent deleriant (the kind that makes college students walk into police stations naked), but it’s also toxic!:
Its actually a mixture of grass clippings and LSD. The LSD just makes you think you’re getting high. Since it’s not marketed as LSD, its totally legal.
What? It’s true, I swear.
OK, the truth is that they are just mixtures of various herbs claimed over the years to have psychoactive properties, or mor to the point plants with cool names that sound kike they’d get you high i.e. Opium Lettuce, Wild Dagga (Dagga is a term in another language for Marijuanna), Hops (It’s in beer, so it must do something!!).
Truth be told most of the things in there have very little if any effect on your mental state, but I almost gaurentee they are the harshest things your lungs will ever come in contact with, and any effects that the individual plants may actually have is cut to near zero by the other ingredients.
There are a few in there that have some effect, although not necessarily the ones you want, especially if you’re looking to “mellow out” one Ive seen contains Yerba Mate- the stuff I drink in the morning because my caffiene addiction is too high to maintain with regular coffee, lotsa caffiene there. Damiana, another exceedingly common ingredient in that stuff might actually have an effect, but not a very strong one, and at the expense of your liver/kidneys. Its lso claimed to be an aphrodesiac. I personally use this in tea form occasionally in the same way youd use echinacea, its not so much an “immune booster” but it does seem to have an affect when Im ill, although I haven’t ruled out the Placebo effect on that one. As for why you’d smoke it, it does relax you, although hardly any more than Chamomille will, and as for it’s sexual properties, it does seem to highten the sense of touch, which, although I dont have a cite, I believe has been linked to increasing the bloodflow to nerves.
There are plenty of psychoactive substances out there that are as legal as air. Although most of them have a high chance of either killing you, or frying your brain into mush. I see this as the one example of the government allowing the herd to thin itself, but that’s just me.
-PSM, who has read way way to many herbal healing books.
x-ray vision’s link claims that some herbal products are labeled as “Salvia O”, with the intent of making the customer think they contain “Salvia D” as in Divinorum.
I suspect any product containing salvia divinorum would be prominently labeled as such, since it’s legal in the US and is actually psychoactive. (It isn’t a very pleasant experience, IMO, but it certainly has an effect for about 10 minutes.)
If you want a legal jones, get a pipe and smoke some strong “twist” tobacco. If you’re a normal human being, you’ll be sufficiently buzzed. If you inhale, you will wish you had died.
You had better really love strong flavors, though. This is not for those of delicate palate.
My recommendations:
Samuel Gawith “Black XX” or “Brown #4”. The #4 may be the strongest tobacco I have ever had, and that includes comparisons to very strong cigars.
Gawith and Hoggarth “Black Irish Twist” and “Brown Irish Twist”. The Brown Irish is almost as strong as the #4. The two “black” twists are, ironically, less strong than their brown counterparts. They may look oily and evil, but the steaming they underwent to get all black and oily also got rid of some harsher components.
Warning: Do not operate heavy machinery while smoking any of the above. Likewise, if you are not already an afficianado of strong cigars or strong pipe tobacco, be sure you have no need to walk much. Likewise, oddly enough, smoking tobacco this strong can have a laxative effect on some people, or so I hear. Have something on hand to drink. I recommend water or root beer. Adding alcohol to this is only for advanced students.
Other than Salvia Divinorum most of the crap sold as “marijuana alternatives” has no effect other than filling your lungs with smoke.
These things have been around longer than you think. In the old days it was called “shake”, and consisted of assorted herbs that dealers would mix in with regular pot to make it look like you were buying more weed than you really were. How it ended up being marketed retail is beyond me.
Salvia Divinorum (x15 extract) is seriousley strong stuff, i’m talking out of body DMT strength experience. Other than that all the rest of them are usually rubbish. I have a friend who works a ‘legal highs’ stall at festivals and has sampled almost all of the legal highs he sells, he reckons the only ones that actually work are amyl nitrate and Salvia x 15, whether you want to feel like your face is going to pop or experience out of body hallucinations is up to you…