Giving up the evil weed

[JumpedAngel]

A gnome I know was recently forced to modify his tobacco smoking habits due to financial constraints, the tax man and several other facists came looking to get blood from his stone and he found to his dismay that for a little while he was flat broke and could not afford his $60 a week tobacco smoking habit, so like a clever little gnome he went looking through his stash of all things wonderfull that he had secreted away in many magic glass caverns over the years being mindfull that the withdrawal from such a habit may cause some whaling and gnashing of teeth.

It is now 3 weeks since he had his last smoke of tobacco and although he can now afford it again he is reluctant to go back to his evil ways, as he had tried to give it up voluntarily many times in the past without success and just accidentally found a way to beat it using a painless alternative, so he asked me to post this topic being mindfull that others wishing to do likewise may not neccesarily have access to the same alternatives, however he wants to put it out there as he feels he has made some interesting and unexpected observations along the way.

Whithout thinking twice, he began this unplanned adventure by opening the magic glass cavern containing pituri which he had not even glanced at for well over a decade and did this with an incantation of the magic words "Duboisia Hopwoodii", thinking at the time that the nicotine contained therein would be a wonderfull way to forget the tobacco pangs as he had not originally intended to give up smoking in the traditional sence and so he took to experimenting with various ways of smoking the herb as he did not wish to chew it and does not know of any way to make a self-adhesive pituri patch.

This herb is said to contain far larger doses of nicotine than tobacco and after about a week of smoking pituri straight he began to form a few interesting observations.

1) He had been dealing with two different addictions all along, the addiction to the habit of smoking was as stong as the addiction to the nicotine, these became seperable when substituting pituri for tobacco.

2) The nicotine in the pituri was not as strong, or not the same, or not as addictive as that in tobacco despite the fact that it is said to contain huge amounts of nicotine as well as nor-nicotine, it did not satisfy the same craving as tobacco normally does but did substitute a similar gratification, so that when he really needed to, he could get some gratification which in itself was non-addictive or at least far less addictive, this was discovered on one occasion when some tobacco was smoked by accident without having realized that he had all but beaten the addiction to tobacco nicotine when this happened.

3) A lesser observation was that the flavour of pituri was less palatable, almost like smoking gum leaves and took a little getting used to.

4) After weening himself off tobacco for almost 3 weeks he became aware of the fact that he was actually getting a bigger nicotine hit by getting second hand smoke than the hit from smoking pituri first hand.

5) He has since been experimenting with other smokable herbs in combination with the pituri but has not as yet found a suitably aromatic replacement for the rum & wine flavoured tobacco whose flavour he used to love.

6) He now smokes about 5 pituri smokes a day, more out of boredom or habitual addiction than from chemical addiction, whereas 3 weeks ago he was smoking between 40 and 50 STRONG tobacco cigarettes each day, and the only time he gets that pang of addiction in his solar plexus now is when he gets a whif of tobacco cigarette smoke from a second hand source.

7) The glass cave is now coming down towards empty and the gnome is considering the options of another desert trek or perhaps a smokable alternative for the sake of the habbit.

Keep tuned to this station, experiment is continueing.

[Guest electro]

hhh has some "not maryJ" smokes or somehting similar .. they almost taste like weed and have done well as an alternative to smoking ccigarettes (given up the 3 pack a day addiction for 3 months now woot !) . all the other herbal ones are fu&*ing awful (maybe with the exception of magic .. they are terrible, but not as bad as the other one.. "exctacy smokes" are also awful ...

[waterdragon]

whatever you cure for smoking try to leave a little moisture within ie not brittle dried. salvia melissodora has a nice taste for smoking by itself or addition to other mixes.

[Guest d0tb0y]

Someone threw a motherwort plant at me one day. I let it take residence on my patio, and one day i ripped some leaves off and let it dry.

Smoked this. Didn't smell funny, didn't taste funny, was pretty darn relaxing, and didnt make me salivate at ALL or spit a lot (tobacco does this to me)

Im just starting my summer garden so im DEFINATELY putting some motherwort in there, and I too am interested in other things that can be added to a decent cigarette mix. But i definately suggest motherwort. It grows fast, almost weedy. You're bound to have heaps in no time if let loose

[JumpedAngel]

thanx dudes

i had to re-read the original post, i can't believe its been almost 9 months without tobacco, for curiosities sake, yes i still smoke (between 3 and 5 per day), smoking itself is a habbit, but i'm still not sure i want to stop it all together (can't see that as being a good idea), recently i read that a small amount of smoked brug. can help decongest my head making it easier to pop my ears and not risk preasure damage when scuba diving (long term problem of mine) so i guess i'll be trying that, aside from that, over the last 9 or so months i've continued smoking Convolvulus sabatius, although it no longer gives that initial mild buzz, i've mixed it with cloves, having found a cheap source, and lately tried goodenia ovata but that stuff really sux, hope to get back to the desert in a short while and collect some more pituri (still keeping my fingers crossed), once that is done, i will get back to some tobacco, but hope to try mainly the native ones... cheers and thanx for the suggestions... nothing as cool as when someone who has actually used the stuff writes a reply

[gomaos]

Why get back to tobacco? That stuff sucks, even the homegrown one.

I have experimented when i was still on it.

I found the worst tobacco to be "chop-chop", that illegal stuff that comes around and goes around,

homegrown tobacco, badly or not at all cured, just as bad, in spite of lack of added chemicals,

and low-nicotine cigarettes were indeed the least damaging.

i found it annoying always HAVING TO HAVE tobacco, simply because you're addicted and need it, for no other reason.

I mean that doesn't make sense.

Even evil alcohol gives you an effect, that of being drunk, yet tobacco does nothing, except your bloodpressure rises and is all over the place, while/after smoking tobacco.

And perhaps keeping one awake on long drives, simply because of the procedure of smoking, of inhaling, keeping it in and then blowing it out again.

Tobaaco is detrimental to health and sort of lowers your immune system, i.e. an immediate increase in fitness is experienced after stoppingn a nicotine addiction.

I still smoke too, just not tobacco.

i'd LOVE to have pituri, but it's not available.

Having tried it, I know that it's NOT tobacco and hence i could have some without getting addicted to cigarettes again.

And there's this weird, "coke-like" feeling that one has to get accustomed to first to recognize it. With pituri, that is.

Not having any, I find mexican poppy, argemone mexicana, a good smoke. Slightly stimulating (much more so when you cook up and extract and drink it), it is sort of tasty and a smoke one can get used to.

I seem to have a problem growing enough of it and wish that extract Torsten used to make was still available. i loved that 5x argemone mex extract.

Quite often mexican poppies are found growing wild inland in Australia. They can grow into very large bushes. Not in my backyard however, maybe i'm picking them too often...

Lagochilus was quite helpful with the initial withdrawal, and also adds some "body' to your non-tobacco-smoke.

Motherwort is one I have to look into.

perhaps i should start growing it.

If only cannabis were legal, nothing smokes up better.

But freeing oneself from tobacco-addiction is like breaking free from a dictator who had power over one's life for many years, every hour of the day (and night).

And I've never used any patches, find them a waste of time, since it's just another way of getting nicotine into your blood.

but then I've never smoked 50 cigarettes a day, like some others.

Even with something as heavy as tobacco, there's still carying levels of addiction.

But all one needs is the will to do it.

If that's not there, not really, don't even try.

[JumpedAngel]

the very worst tobacco i had was russian (iron curtain days), wouldn't it be wonderfull to experiment with possibly the most addictive substance ever known to mankind without fear of becoming entraped, such enticing thoughts still occur to me long after that lengthy love affair with the 'evil weed' has ended, you dont even get stoned from it but it becomes your overriding impulse, have you ever asked yourself why that stuff? why not anything else?, you have to admit, there is a mystery there, haveing now smoked a 'large' quantity of pituri with apparent impunity, i now want to experiment with various tobaccos for a while, then, if my former addiction to tobacco is renewed, i will attempt to beat it a second time, again using pituri just to be sure that it was not just some happy accident the last time.

the gnome down the road (JumpedCatholic) was thinking that the tincture might make an interesting party drink, provided you could keep the dose under control then your major legal concern might actually be something as ridiculous as haveing to contend with liquor laws, might be easier all round if it was just a fizzy drink with no alcohol, dont laugh, remember coca-cola?, but i wouldnt be at all upset if it just turned out to be usefull as an antidote to tobacco addiction.

[TG83]

I know a friend overseas who used nicotine free cigarettes. Its still actual tobacco but the nicotine has been extracted out asmuch as possible. There is still a very tiny amount of nicotine in them and they do contain tar and other things to make it taste like the other processed stuff you buy at the shops. He used low strength patches for afew weeks and then only smoked the nicotine free cigarettes for another 2 months before he stopped all together.

I am yet to hear of tobacco being sold in Australia which has had the nicotine almost totally extracted, even the old 1mg cigarettes still had just enough to keep you hooked (and had basically no taste to them). Also to import such cigarettes you are hit with rather large taxes whether they are full strengh or no nicotine. I have used patches before and they worked well for the nicotine side of things but i found whenever I had a spare 5 minutes I would crave to smoking a cigarette just because the habit of always doing it was there. It would be alot easier if a company sold the nicotine free tobacco cigarettes over here but I'm guessing that wont happen anytime soon, tobacco companys helping us to beat the addiction they started and base their earnings on? Sadly i don't believe it will ever happen.

I may try making my own smoking mix from other plants and see if I can find something that I can tolerate and use as a replacement. Smoking addiction is something I have tried to stop for many years but always failed, as JumpedAngel said it is two different addictions and alot of people including myself find that just replacing the nicotine is not enough to beat it.

[darkhorse]

Don't forget the effects of chronic low dose beta-carboline administration may have (norharman and harman) on the withdrawal process so some 5-ht issues should be dealt with and from what I have read norharman is fairly nasty.