DOSE:

40 g

oral

Nutmeg

(powder / crystals)

BODY WEIGHT:

205 lb

INTRO
======
I've been doing nutmeg for two years now, once a month on average. I quit smoking pot around the same time I started this, and in a lot of ways nutmeg has kept me off other drugs as well. One of the intoxicating effects of the spice is that it is as much sickness as high, so in one not-so-neat three day package I come out with the feeling that I never want to touch drugs again, and typically don't, for about a month.
In this report I aim to give an account of a 'average' experience based on my many experiences, broken down into the various stages of the process from dosage to aftereffects, and also a short account of my most recent experience, an overdose, which resulted in a visit to the emergency room.

THE 'AVERAGE' EXPERIENCE
=========================
Dosage
-=-=-=-
I'm 20 years old, male and 200 pounds/6'1. Typically I purchase the store-brand packaged pre-ground Nutmeg in the 60g containers. For me that is two doses. If I'm being careful, and I can only recommend that you be careful, I take out all the powder, even out its density (i.e. crush any large lumps etc), and then refill the container. Then I judge it is safe to measure out the doses by volume from the side of the container. My aim is to split it in half. I've read that dosage by weight is preferable. I have underdosed and then added a little more 12 hours later achieving a satisfying high 6 hours down the road. My other method of measuring is by taste. By now I can tell simply from experience how much I need, assuming I'm paying attention. This is probably an unwise method of ingesting the stuff, even if you have the experience, as the last part of this report will illustrate.

Ingestion
-=-=-=-=-=-
Initially smoking it seemed like a pleasant alternative to downing Nutmeg, but after repeated experiments failing, and adding a painful headache on top of it all, I decided that this is as yet to be perfected. Extracting the oil into food has good effects, but is time consuming, and does not in any way diminish the flavour/smell. Smoking the oil by dipping plant material into it seems to have no noticable effect. I would not hold on to this statement too strongly as I have only done this once. I have attempted to extract nutmeg in crystal form but other than some flakes, which I did not even ingest, my single experiment was something of a failure.

What is left, of course is the simple and time proven method of simply drinking it down. Orange juice is a favorite but it can be done any number of ways. The powder is tightly packed and can cover a great area of my throat and internal organs relative to its small volume. In addition to this, nutmeg is extremely absorbent. When it hits my mouth or throat it immediately coats it and the experience is one of being sucked out of all moisture. The smell is strong and to the uninitiated may be unpleasant. To be honest I'm still not used to it. The natural solution to these ingestion problems is quick gulps, and plenty of liquids.

Timing and preparation
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Prep
It is good to keep in mind that Nutmeg induces constipation and dehydration. Milk, gatorade, water in large amounts, premeasured portions of food (so as to not overeat when the munchies march into town), and a little bit of coffee in the morning will stimulate proper hydration and bowel movement. I carry water on me and sip on it throughout the day. I am constantly urinating, so I make sure to do it outdoors or near a bathroom. Nutmeg will keep me in an altered state ranging from tired and relaxed, slightly sedated, to utterly out of reality completely engrossed by internal feeling states on every possible subject in the universe all at once, for a period of more than 48 hours, sometimes up to 72 hours. Hence the best time to do it is when on vacation, on a long weekend or at a mindless job (of course without operating machinery of any kind) where you only need to focus on one thing at a time. The times listed here are not necessarily standard, but are my own.

The High
-=-=-=-=-
The onset is slow so the best time to take nutmeg is early in the morning, that way I can catch the full panorama. The other method is to take it late at night and wake up very tired and stoned. I prefer the first method. I typically peak around 12 hours into it, can feel it strong at around 8 hours into it, should be feeling some sort of aprehension or minor effects around five hours into it, and should have a bump of a pre-high, high energy experience around 30min-1hr into it. During and after the peak, concentration and memory will be shot to hell. During the 5-8 hour mark is the most mentally productive time. The mind is fertile with associations, and I often times find myself writing for hours ceaslessly on any topic, fictional or not, without significant impact on memory. The 8-16 hour mark is a different stage of the high, where I am most heavily dissociated from reality, and can cycle in and out of dreamstates by will.

(T+0:10) It takes around ten minutes to ingest 30g of spice. I can feel that nutmeg is more than a kitchen spice the moment it hits the membranes of my mouth. There is something intoxicating in its very smell. It may be a placebo effect, but even with the very first taste of nutmeg I start to feel slightly altered.

(T+0:30) I start to feel happy and energetic and highly social and talkative.

(T+1:15) I typically lose whatever it was that made me so social before this. Now I feel nothing except the vague feeling that I am not exactly baseline, along with whatever was bothering me before this.

(T+4:00) For the past four hours I have been ingesting liquids and urinating consistently. I often times like to sit down and write a couple of paragraphs on some topics, just so I have something going on in my mind to return to later. By this time the nutmeg burps are a common occurence and my eyes are starting to get a little heavy. This is a good time for a walk, or something to take off the edge off the anticipation.

(T+5:00) 'My mind is a hurricane of sticky thoughts. Every thought can lead to a multiplex of other thoughts, all of them highly visual and significant, and if I could just write it all down, I would be able to unfold the mystery that is me.', a quote from 6/17/06 at around the same time. I typically start experiencing a productive nervous tension around this time. I also tend to become completely absorbed in whatever I am writing or doing. This is the onset of the high, and so far it doesn't come with a buzz, but the mental effects are substantial. Eyes are starting to dry. Music is more appealing in a purely sensual way.

(T+6:00) Eyes are heavy, typically pink and drying. The mouth is dry. I keep hydrating, I eat something that I have prepared. I am buzzed and my mind is playful and active.

(T +8:00) The mental trippiness that came on so playfully is by now thickly covered with a sedative, but still increasing. The trip is now a slog. The sedation has been steadily increasing since (T+5:00)

(T+10:00) Supremely sedated, supremely high, and highly eroticised, all creative work is largely out of the window by now. I like to eat something around this time as well. I have kept hydrated throughout the whole time, and am urinating profusely. The urine is very light, but it seems to be slightly oily from the nutmeg.

(T+12:00) The mind is completely gone in any normal sense. One may think that this is horrible and that it is another sign of how pointless drugs are, I sometimes bring a tape recorder with me, lie down on a hard surface so that I don't fall asleep, close my eyes, and start talking about whatever. I notice that despite the fact that I am awake, I am not really awake. I am in between the dreamworld and the waking world, and on top of that I am stoned. I describe what is happening in my fantasies and memories. At the very least I will come up with some bizzare starting points for short stories.

(T+16:10) It is a good idea to fall asleep eventually.

(T+24:00) I have awoken, barely. I am completely relaxed, breathe with joy, and feel completely sedated. This is like vicodin, but over the counter. My mind works and is playful. My memory is functioning, although probably at about 90%, and my emotions are simpler, less guarded, and in every way I am more honest. I need to urinate badly. I need to hydrate worse, as I have been unable to do this while sleeping. I inhale cigarettes a bit too much. The effects last for another 24-48 hours, decreasing very slowly.

(T+48:00) The next day is even more relaxed and furthermore the bulk of the unpleasant effects are gone. I can basically go to work and be responsible.

THE OD
=======
This happened four days ago, 6/11/07. I live in a camp in California. It is a sort of work program for troubled youths, and in my case comes with a bed, a closet for personal belongings and food. Our camp is a two hour walk away from any civilization, so the night before, on the 10th of June I walked for about 8 hours back and forth between camp and town. During the last such trip I bought the usual 60g container from a local grocery store. I'd done their stuff only twice before, and it was strong. The first dose after a month's break is always strong, the second dose is much easier. I was dosing in the dark outside of camp, since I didn't want to explain all this to my roommates, and get fired later when I get snitched out. So in the dark I keep pouring the stuff into the cap that comes with the bottle and dosing off that.

Typically four full caps will do it. Unfortunately the nutmeg was bunched together and I consume more than I banked for, like an idiot. I didn't really pay attention to how much I was putting in there either. I was in a rush because it was late at night and I wanted to wake up early and go to town the next morning to catch internet at the library on my laptop. I drink about half a gallon of cold water before I go to sleep. I've been taking caffeine pills and smoking cigarettes all day, I have not properly hydrated.

The next morning I am woken up at 530 by a fire alarm, and am forced to march out of bed to the assigned area where we are to meet and line up. As I get up I realize that I am in no condition to walk and am real dizzy. My skin is yellowish and horribly (by the descriptions of my friends) pale. I arrive at the location where we are to line up. I can barely stand. I feel my blood pressure dropping. I am ridiculously high. I crouch down to get more blood into my head. As I get up from the crouch I suddenly feel faint and pass out. My friends tell me I acted like I was having a seizure, falling and getting up, being incoherent and unable to answer questions, grabbing on to people to keep balanced.

I have completely blacked out and am only coming to as two people drag me out of the group area towards the office parking lot where the ambulance is to come. As my consciousness resurfaces, my high resurfaces as well. I comment on how much better I am feeling and tell them to let me go to sleep and how I would feel better etc, but they keep dragging me to the bench where I am supposed to sit and wait for the ambulance. I've hit my head repeatedly against concrete. One of the guys is just confused and unsure as to what is happening with me, and the other dude keeps telling him that he thinks he knows what's wrong with me and shakes his head. He thinks I've had way too much to drink, and in his mind thinks that this is my last day at the job. I'm thinking about keeping conscious, panicking about the cost of the ambulance, exhalting god through the intense high which reminds me of him, and laughing inwardly, thinking that the hospital will never detect the nutmeg in my system.

I am strapped down to a bed and my neck is put in a brace, the assumption being that something might have happened to my head and neck. No one seems to suspect that I am under the influence of anything. I don't tell them anything. They don't ask. They just ask me how I am feeling and I tell them that I'm faint and dehydrated and that I think my blood pressure dropped. They agree and are happy that there is no concussion or damage to the head. I am too. On the way to the hospital they put me on an IV, and the bumpy road makes them stab my hand many more times than is necessary.

When I get to the hospital I can't help but grinning at the nurse who is putting sticky pads on my chest and hips for the ekg that they were about to do. They put me on a saline drip and monitor my heart. A nice old lady helps me with food and water, and I gladly consume 2 glasses of water with a delicious sandwitch. I think to myself that this trip to the hospital is like a nice vacation from the ordinary. I am still way too stoned to be worried about anything. I come out two hours later and am largely rehydrated, get back to camp and go to sleep for the rest of the day. The next day I sign some paperwork that makes the whole thing covered by worker's compensation, simply by virtue of it having happened on camp. My urine test reveals no drugs.

Today I rethink the whole thing and regret it. I'm getting more tests to check if I might not be prone to seizures.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 63726
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 18, 2007	Views: 72,338
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Nutmeg (41) : Difficult Experiences (5), Health Problems (27), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Overdose (29), Retrospective / Summary (11), Various (28)