DOSE: T+ 0:00	350 g	oral	Poppies - Opium	(seeds)
T+ 0:40	1.6 g	oral	Kava	(extract)

BODY WEIGHT:

170 lb

Recently I have been searching for a good “legal” high, as I recently moved home from college and don’t have a local source for anything but weed. My drugs of choice are prescription benzodiazepines (xanax, klonopin, etc.) and opiate pain killers, even though I’ve done just about every drug you can name (minus heroin, which I think I would like way too much). After reading many reports on the internet about achieving a successful high from poppy seed tea, I decided to try it out. I should say that I am a fairly experienced user of opiate pain killers and have a rather high tolerance for them, so the dose that works for me may be too high for those who have little or no tolerance. The successful recipe is farther down, but first I will document my trial-and-error process which, although frustrating, taught me what does not work and helped me figure out my ideal personal dosage.

The first 2 times I used one bottle of brand name seeds (McCormick), which was about 60 grams, that I boiled with 2 cups of water and the juice of one lemon, then filtered and drank. I felt little or no effect from these first 2 batches and was very discouraged, but I decided to try again with more seeds. I went to a local “gourmet” supermarket called Central Market and purchased around 150 grams of seed from the bulk spices section. I had done more research at this point and discovered that boiling the seeds damages/breaks down the morphine and codeine on the seeds, so I used a slightly different method. I boiled 2.5 cups of water and let it cool for several minutes until it was a few degrees below boiling, then dumped the seeds into the pot with the juice of 2 lemons and covered, stirring occasionally over the period of 1 hour. At the end of the hour I strained the mixture through a coffee filter and drank the liquid quickly. This time I definitely felt something, and I am certain that it was not placebo because I was fairly sure after my first 2 experiences that it would be no different this time. It was similar to the effect I get from taking a normal therapeutic dose of hydrocodone with a mild sense of euphoria and some tingling of the extremities along with relaxation, but nothing special. At this point I was sure I could make poppy seed tea work, so I read everything I could find on the subject. Following is a list of things I learned about poppy seeds/poppy tea that you may find helpful:

1. Some recipes say to crush the seeds or pulverize them in a coffee grinder. This is a waste of time and if anything counterproductive. The opiate content of the seeds comes from pod drippings that fall onto the seeds, there is nothing actually in the seeds. For my second batch (which was a failure) I broke up the seeds in a coffee grinder. When I did this a fine powder was created that was very difficult to gather and put into the tea, so I undoubtedly lost some of the precious opiates. The grinding misconception comes from the method for making tea from dried poppy pods, which do need to be broken up fairly well.
2. Because the opiate content of the seeds is a coating, letting the seeds sit in the water does not do a whole lot. They need to stay in motion for about fifteen minutes to get the goodies off. A good method for this is simply putting the seeds in a large jar with a lid and shaking the hell out of it.
3. Some recipes say to let the seeds soak for an hour or more after the fifteen minute shaking, some say to use them right at the end of the shaking. It seems to me that letting the seeds sit there allows the seeds to soak up more of the liquid, which can’t be good. A good method is to shake them for a while, let them sit for about twenty minutes (to give your arms a rest), give them another good shaking, then strain and drink. You really can’t shake them too much.
4. There seems to be a general consensus that you shouldn’t use boiling water, as it damages some of the opiate content. Most recipes call for warm or hot water, but some say heating the water is a waste of time and cold water works just as well. It makes sense that using heated water would help, just be sure that the water is not too hot.
5. Many accounts I read of successful teas were by people from Australia/other foreign countries. I live in America, where the seeds are washed to rid them of their opiate content. Obviously it is impossible to completely wash away all of the opiates, but if you are not in a foreign country you may need to use a larger number of seeds than some recipes call for. The best bet is to buy off-brand seeds in bulk from an ethnic food market or from an organic food store, where the seeds go through less processing. These seeds are usually not washed very well, in addition to being much cheaper. Also the blacker the seeds the better. If you take the unwashed seeds out of a dried pod you will notice that they are almost a pure black color.
6. It helps to make the tea in an acidic solution (hence the lemon juice). Somehow more opiates come off the seeds.
7. Grapefruit juice potentiates the absorption of opiates by the body. Consuming grapefruit juice before/with the tea will give a better result, as you will absorb 10-15% more of the happy stuff (I don’t remember the exact percentage but it was somewhere between 10 and 15). Grapefruit juice can be substituted for the lemon juice in recipes, the citric acid is all that is needed and is found in both.
8. When I used a coffee filter, some seeds fell onto the filter and actually broke through it, so I ended up with a bunch of seeds in my tea that I had to filter out again. The best thing to use is an old t-shirt. It makes for slow filtering but a very clean tea.
li>Most people report that doing a second extraction of the seeds (strain the seeds out then repeat the extraction process with the same seeds) is a waste of time, but it couldn’t hurt.
9. The effective dosage in most reports is 250-400 grams, although these are usually experienced users. Some report needing a much higher amount, but don’t start above this level, and you should really start below it.
10. It seems that even with a large number of seeds you don’t need to use more than 3 or 4 cups of water, with most recipes calling for 2.5-3 cups. I use more just because I want to be sure to get as much dissolved as possible, and only so much can dissolve in 3 cups of water. I don’t know the numbers though, 3 cups may hold plenty. The tea does taste like shit, so you want as little liquid as possible, but I have never seen a recipe that uses less than 2 cups.
11. In my opinion the tea tastes better with grapefruit juice (as opposed to lemon juice), and the more juice in the liquid the better.
12. The main opiate content of the seeds is morphine and codeine, morphine being the highest percentage.
13. If you can get the dried poppy pods, which you can apparently order on ebay and other places on-line (I haven’t tried it but I’m pretty sure it works), they apparently work much better since they have a much higher opiate content and the seeds inside them are completely unwashed. Be careful though, these are intended for use as a floral decoration and some are treated so they can’t be consumed.
14. Some poppy seed tea contains relatively high amounts of thebaine, as many opium poppies are bred for high levels of thebaine, which is used to to make many semi-synthetic pharmaceuticals. Thebaine is a stimulant and can cause some tension, rapid heartbeat, and possibly a slight feeling of unease for the first 30-60 minutes. However, it is not very harmful and good effects of the tea last much longer.
15. The effects of the tea can last as little as 3 hours or as long as 8+ hours.
16. The opiate content of the tea can vary greatly from batch to batch, even with the same amount of seeds and the same brand. This is because the opiate content of the seeds before washing depends on the plant itself (the climate, harvesting time, etc.), and then how much is effectively removed in the washing process. Thus you can never really be sure what kind of dosage you are getting, so be careful.
17. The opiates in the tea are no different than any other, so the tea is still fairly addictive. Some people are able to use the tea to quit using other, more harmful opiates, but many times will end up addicted to the tea. In my personal experience, I seem to have cravings less often and lower in intensity since I have been using the tea instead of the pills, which is encouraging. An interesting fact I came across is that the codeine in hydrocone, tylenol 3, etc. is not the reason heavy users often suffer liver damage. Rather, it is the high dosage of acetaminophen/ibuprofen that damages the liver.
18. If you don’t want to deal with the taste you can evaporate off the liquid over low heat, leaving you with the raw material, which you can put into a gelcap and simply take like any other pill. I have also heard that this material is smokable, but it may need to be further processed. I haven’t tried either of these but I have read several accounts of both where they were successful.
19. Most people report at least some nausea with this tea, although they don’t seem to mind. Some also report insomnia, although this can happen with regular hydrocodone as well (and once again they don’t seem to mind).
20. There is at least one case where someone has died by overdosing on poppy seed tea. A 17 year old male used 3.5 pounds (roughly 1600 grams) of seeds to make a batch of tea, an amount he had used several times before with no negative effects, only this time the seeds apparently contained much more morphine than the seeds he used previously. When his blood was tested after the overdose it contained 210 ng/ml of morphine, with normal theraputic doses ranging from 10-70 ng/ml. It is important to keep in mind the fact that poppy tea contains potentially lethal substances, so be careful if you try it, and certainly do not start with a high dose.

Now for the winning recipe. For my fourth attempt, I went to my local organic food store and bought a pound of seeds (about 450 grams), which only cost me $7.50. Using a funnel I poured most of the seeds (350 grams or so) into an old, cleaned-out pasta sauce jar. Next I poured the juice from one grapefruit into the jar, then filled it nearly to the top with hot tap water. I shook the jar for at least fifteen minutes, took a thirty minute break, then shook the jar for another fifteen minutes. Once the seeds settled to the bottom of the jar I poured the liquid into a tall glass, filtering through an old t-shirt.

I downed the tea as quickly as possible, but it did not taste as bad as my previous batches because I used more juice. This was around 10 PM on a weeknight, and I was in a fairly good mood going into it, although somewhat bored (obviously). I had eaten dinner about an hour before, so this may have somewhat dulled the experience. The effects set in after about 40 minutes, at which point I took 8 200mg capsules of store-bought kava kava extract (why not?).

By the time an hour elapsed I knew that I had finally found what I was looking for, achieving a pleasant, euphoric high that lasted around 5 hours. The kava kava added a nice dimension to the whole experience, increasing my level of calm and relaxation from the level I am used to when I take pain killers alone. It was not an earth-shattering experience, but it was comparable to popping a few codeine and maybe half a xanax, which is all I wanted in the first place. It definitely cured my boredom, as well as some annoying lower-back pain I was having at the time, and I was completely content to relax and watch TV. At no time did I experience any nausea, which greatly surprised me, although I did feel some slight tension from the thebaine during the first 45 minutes. I didn’t have any trouble sleeping, but that is only because I took a few tylenol PM once the effects started to wear off (around 3 AM). I have repeated this method several times since and achieved more or less the same result. I would personally much rather pop 4 or 5 hydrocodone, but this is a nice, affordable option to fall back on when the pills are scarce. Enjoy!

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 68993
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 12, 2013	Views: 132,938
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Kava (30), Poppies - Opium (43) : Alone (16), Preparation / Recipes (30), General (1)