DOSE:

oral

Poppies - Opium

(tea)

I have a long history of drug use, I began using drugs at the age of twelve when I took my first mushroom trip. This was the beginning of a 20+ years love affair with drugs. For the majority of this period my drug use was confined to the use of psychedelics (+ daily use of weed), and I have ingested just about every psychedelic in varying amounts and combinations. My drug use first showed signs of being problematic when I began to move from the 'classic' hallucinogens to semi- or quasi- psychedelic substances i.e. E and K. Since these drugs do not have the intrinsic safety mechanism that the proper psychedelics do- which I still believe to be positive substances whose use I in no way regret- I began to use them in an increasingly irresponsible fashion. Anyway, in this pharmaceutical career I began to experiment with poppies.

At first this was confined to the summer months when I was living alone in a large town in the Midlands.

Often of a summer night I would set out scissors and plastic bag in hand to climb into churchyards and gardens harvesting pods, I would then return to my flat to boil and consume. Certainly at this point I was aware of the potential for addiction, often I would dispose of large quantities of unused opium tea for fear that I would fall into a pattern of regular use. At this point I was unaware that dried poppy heads were viable source of opium, and since my use was confined to the summer months I did not see it as a problem. Fast forward a few years, now the Internet is in most homes and a world of information at one's fingertips. Browsing one of my favourite sites, I stumbled across the information that dried poppy heads can be used in the manner of fresh heads - little did I know that piece of information would succeed in wrecking my life. At this point I had moved to a new town and was living with a friend from the ecstasy and acid days; I made the mistake of introducing him to the pleasures of the pod, which he took to like a fish to water.

Having run a small business he knew something of wholesalers and said that large quantities of pods could be purchased at them. One day he persuaded me to travel around the city (a large, ugly town in Northern England well know for its addicts and criminals and from which DeQuincey heralded) visiting various floral suppliers- lo and behold we discovered that dried pods were available -often from Turkey or India- at the price of £20 ($30) per box = approx. 1000 heads. This was the start of the slippery slope, at first we indulged together in large brews of 200-300 pods that would have us pin eyed and puking - then constipated for days. This went on for several months, then my use began to change, and I began to use much smaller quantities every 4-5 days. This has gone on for several years now and between fresh poppies in the summer and dried pods in the winter I have never gone without. However I know I have a habit, and I know how hard it is to kick, every week I try and every week I fuck up. I hate myself for having got into this situation, one that my friend managed to avoid.

Opiates are bad shit - I never trip now and the revelations that I experienced are nothing but memories- whose recollection pains me since they point to how far I fallen. My use is low, averaging about 8-12 pods per week, but I can't seem to stop. I don't know whether to seek help or not, my family and friends are unaware of my use though I have developed the craven look of an addict, and suffer from insomnia and bowel problems from my weekly attempts of come off, which I think must suggest that I'm in some sort of trouble.

In fact I seem to have become trapped in sort of pugatory between full addiction and sobreity- I won't let myself slip into more regular use but at the same time I won't give up and as a result I spend several days a week in a state of withdrawal. In fact I suspect that this is more physically punishing then if I was using all the time.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 17582
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Mar 3, 2003	Views: 31,073
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Poppies - Opium (43) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Addiction & Habituation (10), Retrospective / Summary (11)