Chatting with Sasha

[Torsten]

http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/shulginchat

Tuesday, February 22 at 3 PM PST / 6 PM EST (USA)

To submit a question now, please use the following email address: [email protected]

[2b]

Cool !!

[psybernaut]

So that'll be 9.30am on Wednesday the 23rd for Adelaide people (according to this site). Please let me know if I got that wrong! Would hate to miss it.

[psycho0]

what time would this be for us in melbourne?

many thanx

aaron

[Rev]

ok this is an honest question

what would one ask sasha shulgin that couldnt be found elsewhere?

its no deridation of sasha but an observation of the intereting situation whne an experienced researcher whose published a lot and already inspired a horde of protege's is confronted by mundane question 1 million and 1 or is questioned on an area they know little about

it struck me when i saw Jonathan ott speak that nobody had any good questions

most were questions answered by info ive read in his books and the others he didnt answer that well were on topics like essential oils which isnt really his forte (and werent phrased that well)

nothing said that couldnt be found in his books or elsewhere in general cyberspace.

not to say it wsnt enjoyable - its all good info and the delivery is entertaining

same for shulgin. just what do you ask him?

synth? well itd have to be good q or else your going to go somewhere hes hasnt tried or else your in the realm youd call UTFSE online

the chances of engaging him in something he might actually be excited about would be kinda slim id figure.

possibly the MDMA-4 oil is one but who knows he got so much shit over PIKHAL he might be over that even.

again i have no ide but you get what i mean

so just what would one ask shulgin??

[ 22. February 2005, 22:44: Message edited by: Rev ]

[t st tantra]

my first q would be 'why is bridgesii 3 times stronger than pachanoi?'

my second 'could you tell us about your latest cactii research?'

my third 'should it be possible to obtain maoi from smoking harmala type alkaloids ?'

then 'i've read of harmala alkaloids that are 25 times stronger than harmine,is this true?could you enlighten me further on this subject?'

t s t .

[Torsten]

The intelligence of a person is rarely measured by what information he shares, but by what questions he asks. I am personally embarrassed to ask questions that I know will bore the other person, and will refrain from doing so unless there is simply no other option. There is a vast amount of stuff Ott knows that I don't, but I would prefer to ask other people because I know he has been asked a hundred times and probably really doesn't like repeating.

When I met Ott years ago I approached him about the use of moclobemide as a MAOI for pharmahuasca and we had a heated debate that was cut short by the end of the intermission and was resumed later in the nightclub. It was an engaging conversation for both of us, although ultimately it turned out he was wrong and might prefer to forget it

Some people asked mundane questions of him like how long do you brew ayhuasca and how much do you put in it etc, but most had questions that truely engaged him and challenged his current research. I think the reported lack of interesting questions at the recent meeting was probably less to do with Ott than with the audience. The fact he gave bored and short answers is a good indicator of that, cos he certainly doesn't do that elsewhere.

Interestingly Terence McKenna had a similar problem in australia.

As for Shulgin, if you know about his backgroudn then you are also likely to find some interesting questions. In fact his whole life is so interesting that it would be difficult to run out of relatively unique questions. Many might ask questions relating to legal issues as he is highly skilled in interpreting these. I personally would ask him mostly natural products questions about essential oils and alkaloids. Someone more in tune with his current research might ask him about the isoquinolines or more general stuff about poppies and cacti. Hell, just how much do you know about his cactus research? Surely not a lot cos not much has been released, so this would be a good field to get some new and fresh information.

PIHKAL is really two separate sections. One is the 2CB series and the rest is everything else. When Sasha discovered 2CB he pretty much neglected everythign else and kept it as he says 'for a rainy day'. I think PIHKAL is lacking a lot because of this move and the more information that can be drawn from Sasha about 'the rest', the better for all of us.

Again, if such a conversation/Q&A was to actually turn out dull, I don't think it would be Sasha who is lacking, but rather the audience. As for engaging him, the length and passion of his emails indicates that he is only to happy to elaborate as long as you ask interesting questions.

I missed the show, but it may well have shown just what sort of questions he likes.

[mescalito]

I'd definitely be asking him about the isoquinolines as I've had a mild but enjoyable exp. with a certain cacti reported to contain THIQ.Mainly because I see potential for these chems in alcohol withdrawal in certain types of drinkers.

That and when can I come and hang out man? :D

[Thelema]

Q: on what phenethylamine did your penis shrink the most?

A: 2C-M

[Torsten]

on the topic of 2C somethings - I guess another question could have been to get more detail about an issue discussed in another thread about the bromination of cathinine to make 2CB rather than his method of starting with a 1,4 benzene condensation.

eg. get 1 kilo of khat leaves, exract into truckloads of DCM and add some pool bromine at 0degC. 'Work up as usual'.

Am I close?

I wonder what 4-bromo-nor-ephedrine would be like, cos there should be plenty of that too. The 4-bromo-cathinone would have probably done some funky disappearing act along the way so probably wouldn't be in the end result.

[2b]

If i could talk to Dr. Shulgin i would want to here his views on censorship. In his opinion can he see the logic in refusing clasification for Pihkal and not Tihkal ? Torsten I thought cathine exracted from Khat was so unstable that is was not worth the effort ?

[apothecary]

It's stable enough that a guy managed to get hooked on it.

Hit erowid, look in the experiences for "the methcathonine experiment" or something.

[2b]

Haven't checked Erowid yet , but methcathonine is a result of oxidation of psuedoephedrine (with methamphetamine being the result of a reduction)Cathine on the other hand is the active in the khat plant , still thanks for the tip I'll look into it. I imagine if it was stable it already would have a reputation as a precursor and to the best of my knowledge it's not very popular (as a precursor)