Ltd Ed 'Solve et Elucido' Art Giclee
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The Collector
Kratom
Citation:   Tomtom. "The Collector: An Experience with Kratom (exp53894)". Erowid.org. Jun 26, 2007. erowid.org/exp/53894

 
DOSE:
2.0 g oral Kratom (extract)
BODY WEIGHT: 200 lb
Recently I've gotten into collecting interesting, rare and medicinally useful plants as well as species I believe will be made illegal in the not-too-distant future. My back yard is full of shit that would easily take out any curious neighborhood children. Fortunately I have a private, fenced in yard in the middle of the city and I haven't seen any kids wandering around. Among my collection are belladonna, datura, rivea corymbosa, coleus blumei a large Banisteriopsis caapi vine and many san pedro cacti none of which I have ever tried though my friends constantly beg me to cut up my huasca and 'have a killer party'. Like I said, it's a collection.

But my absolute favorite plant and the only one I regularly make use of is my kratom tree. I have grown this little sweety from a tiny cutting purchased online. The fucker's huge. In my location it frosts in the winter and I have to go through the painful process of lopping off limbs every year to get the thing inside. This is always a happy time for my friends who go nuts for the stuff. As they should, kratom is the cat's meow. While Kratom may not be the best substance conducive to throwing a rager it does make you feel really, really good.

While I have an extensive history of using many different drugs including LSD, LSA, pot, shrooms, cocaine and mescaline, I've never been into pill popping so I can't really vouch for my friends and everyone on this site who reported that the effects of kratom feel like taking a couple Percocet or oxycodone.

My first experience was obviously out of curiosity. I had seen it advertised on the site where I was buying salvia from and one day decided to throw down the loot. I bought 12g ( I think ) in the form of a 15:1 powdered extract that mixed easily with water.

Well on my first kratom experience I had come home from work to find the little package by my front door and waited eagerly for my wife to get home. Despite the fact that she has also tried damn near every drug under the sun, she said she would rather wait and see what it did to me before she would try it. So we raced off to a house by the river where a few friends live. There was a small gathering of people hanging out on a beautiful spring evening and I got two of them to try out this new, mysterious, legal drug.

We each put roughly 2g of the extract into a glass of water and stirred. I put an extra gram in my buddy ' Steve's ' when he wasn't looking. A little ass-holish of me, I know, but he would appreciate it later. My thought was that the stuff tasted like unsweetened black tea. My wife thought the same thing after taking a little swill. The other two proceeded to dump fist fulls of sugar and honey into it saying that it tasted horrible. We all bucked down the glasses, Steve wondering why his was darker than the others. Within 15 min. we could all feel a slight change, just a general good feeling. Unfortunately, all the other folks at the house kept harassing us ' Do you feel it yet ?'

' What's it like? '
' Are you trippin, can I have a sip? '.

Like I said, everyone I've givin it to compares it to some pill or another without side effects or the guilt of stealing their grandmother's prescription. What it does for me is just a very calm, relaxed state of euphoria. Sometimes I get a tingly scalp and flushed feeling, nothing bad. The only obnoxious effect I get nowadays in very high doses ( like when I've been chewing leaves all day at work ) is itchiness. This itch is almost always concentrated on my belly and/or chest but sometimes on the top of my head and behind my knees. It's nothing terrible, and it feels really good to scratch it. Not like a pcp feeling of creepy crawlies. It kinda adds to the euphoria.

I've tried several other 'euphoriants', Kava most heavily and kanna as well, but Kratom is so much better. However, I have to make a conscious effort not to do it all the time. It could definitely be addicting but on the other side of the coin, I have successfully weaned a good friend off of methadone/ H with the use of this plant ( going on a year). He says it feels like drinking liquid opium.

But back to that first experience. The three of us who imbibed had a wonderful time just sitting in the grass talking and smoking bud while everyone else played horse shoes. I think they thought we were faking it or something because we weren't having crazy hallucinations or running around like madmen so they eventually left us alone. The next morning ' Steve ' said he threw up repeatedly claiming that it was 'definitely not the fault of the 18 Miller high-life lites' he had consumed along with the tom. I have mixed tom and booze many times, they don't seem to heighten or accentuate the effects of one another, rather I can just feel both of them acting separately. 'Steve' is the only one I have given the tea to that got sick. He's tried it many times since in milk shake form and has been fine with it.

As far as relaxants go, Kratom is the tops in my opinion, it has helped me cut back dramatically my pot smoking habit as well as my drinking. Now when I get home from a stressful day I pluck a leaf off the tree instead of downing a 12 pack and bottle of Jack. It's just the perfect ending to a shitty day. Or a good one.

I have several ' African Culture ' shops within walking distance of my house that sell different grades of salvia but none of them have any interest in carrying kratom. I have even offered to give a pound of free cuttings to some stores just to try the product out but nobody's going for it. One day I would like to see kratom on the shelves of health food stores next to the kava kava. Until then it's cool that it's still a secret, I just wish I could sell it to the stores around here to turn my neighbors on and make a buck. My friends won't buy it from me 'It grows in your fuckin' yard!

Exp Year: 2006ExpID: 53894
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 26, 2007Views: 7,076
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Kratom (203) : First Times (2), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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