- Category: Non-fiction
- Rating: 3 out of 5
- Tags: Caffeine, Mescaline, Opium, Psychotropic Plants
- How I learned about it: Recommended by a friend.
Michael Pollan is at it again, telling us about his self-experimentation with psychoactive compounds. Previously, in How to Change Your Mind, he discussed the effects of LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient of so-called “magic mushrooms”), as well as 5-MeO-DMT, produced in the venom of the Colorado River toad. Now, in This is Your Mind on Plants, he describes the production and effects of three plant-derived compounds: opium, caffeine and mescaline. (A disclaimer at the front of the book warns about the illegality of producing or possessing opium or mescaline in the US and many other countries.)
The chapter on opium is from an article called Opium, Made Easy, originally published in Harper’s Magazine in 1997, but this time, it appears in its complete form. To avoid potentially dire legal ramifications, one section was omitted from the original article. Enough time has now passed to avoid prosecution, so now the full article can be published.
The great revelation is that it’s possible to produce opium in temperate climates using plants grown from legally obtained poppy seeds. The poppies don’t have to be grown in exotic, faraway places, and the extraction of opiates does not have to be a complicated process. All poppies have some opium in them, but one species, Papaver somniferum, has a high concentration. Seeds are available from mail order catalogues, although they may be sold under different names. Despite what the DEA would have you believe, no specialized harvesting equipment or high-level technical knowledge is required. You don’t even have to grow the poppies yourself; dried seedpods for use in floral arrangements are available from flower shops. Pollan describes the opium tea he made as “a pain killer in every sense”, relieving physical pain, but also “anxiety, melancholy, worry, grief.” It did not make him drowsy; just mildly detached. He was able to read with perfect concentration, and do chores with focus and energy.
Unlike opium, caffeine is legal. We’re so used to being on caffeine that it’s hard to recognize its effects on consciousness. Your daily dose feels good largely because you’re treating withdrawal symptoms. So Pollan abstained from caffeine for three months, then ordered a double-shot of espresso. His drink was “unbelievably good”, producing a feeling of wellbeing, even euphoria, making him almost manically energetic for the rest of the day. It made him wonder, “Is this stuff legal?” To maintain these strong effects, he vowed to use it only once per week, but like any addict soon slipped. One benefit of caffeine abstinence is improved sleep – 25% of the caffeine is still in your body twelve hours after ingestion, so caffeine taken at noon might still be interfering with sleep at midnight. Notably, none of the sleep researchers Pollan interviewed used caffeine.
Like opium, mescaline is both illegal and easily harvested from a plant you can grow at home. Growing peyote cactus is illegal, but the San Pedro cactus is a popular ornamental plant, and perfectly legal. On mescaline, Pollan’s awareness becomes a “sumptuous feast of reality”, creating a “Haiku consciousness” grooving on the “sheer ‘is-ness’ of the given world.”
Growing poppies, harvesting the seed pods, and making a mild opium infusion is more like gardening and brewing tea than manufacturing drugs. Extracting mescaline by peeling a San Pedro cactus, then boiling and straining the pulp seems as mundane as any kitchen task, like shelling peas or peeling cucumber. You can store the resulting liquid in mason jars in the refrigerator. Illegal, but far from the popular image of a drug lab.
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