- Opiated Thai Sticks: Myth or Truth? -

[willydread]

I know for a fact that some seniors from the Esan (Isan?) Region grow up and smoke cannabis, a friend traveled to the area a couple of years ago looking for wild betta fish and found at least one family growing up for personal use...
I don't know if it's landrace genetics or if the seeds come from imported commercial weed.....

 

[Donald Mallard]

it's still the case that in Thailand and Laos smoking ganja is seen as a thing that's traditionally mostly for old men from the countryside

that's exactly what Isan friends of mine said first time they found out I smoked

it's not only that, but the old farmer enjoying a bong after work is the main image associated with ganja in Thailand and Laos

by contrast, Hmong are highlanders from the north (China) and don't traditionally grow ganja

domesticates grown by the Hmong are hemp plants, as in China

if you find Hmong growing ganja, e.g. in Central Laos or northern Thailand, that's a modern thing

did u go toke with some of these old dudes ??



i did , they were cool , and amazed at the fact i could pull down one of their bamboo bongs in one hit ,
really made their day i reckon , haha ..



took me a while to explain that many years ago some aussies went to thailand , they showed them how to toke bongs and the guys returned home to teach us all .. we even had bamboo bongs very similar when i started toking ...



my wife at the time warned me and a chap i was with not to think we were being secretive mentioning gunja and bongs as they were thai words and most knew exactly what we would be saying .. ooops ,, lucky we were warned ...

anyhow when i returned home i made a bamboo bong again because they are an excellent way of toking cannabis ..

 

[maryjaneismyfre]

From the 80's also, compressed "thai" could well have come from southern africa..I know that compressed "jamaican" that was hitting europe for a good few years in the past was from southern africa. Just a side note...


Ahhhh bamboo bongs..now thats been a while! I remember filling mine with real durban poison 20 years ago, when I could just still go down to the rastas on the main road and get it freely..that poison also long gone I think..the poisons in durban, back in the day would retail for 10c US a section which was a gram or three, rolled up in a finger in newspaper that was called a stop or a slope..good times!

 

[xerb]

Just my 2 cents

Just my 2 cents

I have smoked opiated Thai stick - it came through Los Angeles about 1990 - I do not know the source. It was terribly strong, completely over the top.

A friend brought it up with him to share with me.

He was a movie production/special effects guy working in Hollywood.

After several pints of beer and a few shots of tequila we went out to sample his treasure.

He warned me that it was pretty strong, so I took only one hit, then went back into the bar and sat down.

Within a few minutes I was seeing double !!

I remember how novel that was, sitting there in the bar keeping up my end of the conversation, but literally seeing double.

You can probably guess what comes next.

Well, with all that beer and tequila you now what comes next!

I had to pee. The challenge was going to be getting up out of my seat, negotiating a very busy bar all the way to the back, then relieving myself, and then back - all while seeing double !! Done. Whew!

I have also smoked opium and several versions of opiated hash.

In most of these cases the opium drowned out the cannabis effects, and created a very real danger of overdose.

There were exceptions though, if it was very mildly dosed the high blended well with the high of the hash. A body warming high that I have never gotten from cannabis alone.

JUST DON'T SMOKE TOO MUCH.

And NO it was not PCP. I've been there - what a horrible trip.
That time I saw eight television sets, not one, and I did NOT handle myself nearly as gracefully.

But that is another story... Xerb

 

[xerb]

We still find old opium bottles here in town - some with opium

We still find old opium bottles here in town - some with opium

Many of you seem to be unaware that prior to 1937 opium was legal here in the US without a prescription.

One of it's most common forms was the tincure.

Laudanum was just such a tincture, a drinkable cough syrup.

Many people were addicted to it here in the US, but it didn't cause any problems because you could get another bottle for a few pennies at the local pharmacy.

It was very cheap.

It doesn't get much easier to dose a Thai Stick with opium.

So, to dose a Thai stick, they would put the opium in a glass of Everclear, stir til it dissolves, dip your stick and dry. Viola!

A LITTLE bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Xerb

 

[xerb]

I truly believe that opium, coca and cannabis are God's gift to the aging...

In their natural forms, and in moderation, none of them pose a risk to human health, body or mind.

Do you remember when Coca Cola was advertised as a "Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage" ? I seem to remember it having more kick!

Xerb

 

[Chi13]

I have smoked opiated Thai stick - it came through Los Angeles about 1990 - I do not know the source. It was terribly strong, completely over the top.

A friend brought it up with him to share with me.

I have huge doubts that authentic Thai stick was available in the 90s. The stuff I smoked certainly had nothing like an opium effect, the very opposite in fact, and was gone from my area in the late 70s, early 80s.

 

[sirstonealot]

The potential myth:

The finished Thai Sticks were dipped into a byproduct from the opium/heroin production called 'early water'.

I wouldn't normally waste my breath with this sort of thread but I'm stuck in and bored as hell so here is my 2 pence...

The opuim poppy (Which is actually most of them) contains morphine,codine,thebaine,noascipine and papervine.

The morphine is what's used to make heroin the rest is discarded

Firstly the spent aqueous solution contains numerous chemicals which would taste bad and irritate the throat/lungs if combusted/vaporised and inhaled!

Secondly this solution is so dilute in terms of alkaloids that it would not contribute to intoxication of buds dipped in it..if for some reason enough of this spent solution was absorbed by the buds to have a measurable affect it would most definatly taste and smell like opium which would have been overpowering and distinctive and IMO taste like shit.

I've a theory that the this myth started because people were smoking such low grade pot and didn't know any different that when the Thai sticks landed they assumed they were laced due to the comparatively intoxicating effects....if you could go back in time and smoke some modern standard bud with them they would likely make the same assumptions...

Peace

S.S

 

[xerb]

Anybody else out there smoked opium?


Just one rip will set you down and you may not get up for an hour.


Poppies grow well outdoors here in California. When I was a kid we could get a match box size chunk for about $50. The first time I tried it - nothing. Why is that?


The second time I must have taken too big a hit - for an hour it felt like my chest was going to explode - like I'd taken too big a hit of weed and it was expanding in my lungs.

I was staggering slightly and felt sloppy drunk although I had only had a few beers (beer was different back then - 3.2 percent usually).


After that, I learned to moderate the dosage. It was fun on occasion, but has none of the psychoactive effect I love so much. Most people I know either love it or hate it.


I do not remember it tasting bad.

You only need a tiny match head size piece to rock your world.

The opiated hash that I liked so much, you did not notice it at all.


Bottoms up (my favorite position!), Xerb

 

[xerb]

Another story for ya

Another story for ya

You got me thinking and another story came to mind.

This was probably around 1975, and at times weed became very scarce in the San Fransisco Bay area.

Anyway, I knew a couple that grew a small patch of poppies in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Almost all of their product was made into hash! It was a terrible, tasted nothing like hash - but it tasted friggin' HORRIBLE.

But it got you low. Man did it get you low.

Better than huffin' I guess.

Any of you old timers remember a time when you just couldn't find pot?


May your bowl never go empty, Xerb


PS. The guy in this story, one day he stood up, and just fell over dead. I never heard what the tox report said, but he was only 20 something.


PPS. Grasshopper, you must choose your poison wisely

 

[CrustyCruz]

Opium doesn't taste bad, nor is it extremely potent. You could fool most people into thinking they smoked a new indica strain called Laundry Dishes.. Until they spotted the red crystals in their bowl.

 

[vinrusso]

I have smoked opiated Thai stick - it came through Los Angeles about 1990 - I do not know the source. It was terribly strong, completely over the top.

A friend brought it up with him to share with me.

He was a movie production/special effects guy working in Hollywood.

After several pints of beer and a few shots of tequila we went out to sample his treasure.

He warned me that it was pretty strong, so I took only one hit, then went back into the bar and sat down.

Within a few minutes I was seeing double !!

I remember how novel that was, sitting there in the bar keeping up my end of the conversation, but literally seeing double.

You can probably guess what comes next.

Well, with all that beer and tequila you now what comes next!

I had to pee. The challenge was going to be getting up out of my seat, negotiating a very busy bar all the way to the back, then relieving myself, and then back - all while seeing double !! Done. Whew!

I have also smoked opium and several versions of opiated hash.

In most of these cases the opium drowned out the cannabis effects, and created a very real danger of overdose.

There were exceptions though, if it was very mildly dosed the high blended well with the high of the hash. A body warming high that I have never gotten from cannabis alone.

JUST DON'T SMOKE TOO MUCH.

And NO it was not PCP. I've been there - what a horrible trip.
That time I saw eight television sets, not one, and I did NOT handle myself nearly as gracefully.

But that is another story... Xerb

Thai stick in 1990? 1981 was the last thai stick I ever saw. As for "opiated" Thai stick, that was always the mytyh going around in the late 70's but it don't add up. Opium does not just light with direct flame, as for dipping it in some liquified opium, it still would not light. Opium is gooey and it would make no sense for farmers to spend money and time trying to put opium on the weed. An opium high is a basically half sleep, half awake nodding off, while Thai is electric up high. It's like night and day. I am an ex addict and have smoked opium and done a lot of heroin and can tell you many opiate people don't really smoke weed, and your average pot smoker would probably puke their guts out the first time they smoked opium.

 

[chilliwilli]

When making morphine u get the other alkaloids as freebase. Those can be smoked in theory but a lot speaks against it. To solve them u would need some organic solvents that will dev wash away any resin and terps of the plant what will give u some terrible tasting organic mass. Most of the remaining stuff will be codeine what is dangerouse to smoke. U get the same histamin reaction when shooting. Worst case u get water in your lungs.

Think this is a myth, best explaination is first time dank smoke imo.

 

[sirstonealot]

I am an ex addict and have smoked opium and done a lot of heroin and can tell you many opiate people don't really smoke weed, and your average pot smoker would probably puke their guts out the first time they smoked opium.

What would you say about the taste then mate, I would say it's strong and not pleasant although it may become so for habitual users?


Peace

S.S

 

[xerb]

Guys, during the early 1990s we had big tin cans full of Thai stick washing ashore all up and down the California Coast!

During the eighties we started seeing bigger "Buddha Stick", I was never impressed with the quality.

By the early eighties most the Thai weed we saw in Northern California was not as sticks, but in pounds and kilos.

The buds were fatter, I'd wager they were already being hybridized, probably coming from Mexico?

There were just so many pot smokers by then that they got gobbled up and we seldom saw them.

The first ounce of Thai sticks I bought was in 1973. 28 sticks to the ounce.
I paid $150. The going price for Thai sticks was $15 each back then.

I could smoke half a small joint and be very high for 8 hours.

Fare thee well, Xerb

 

[xerb]

Have you ever heard of lead dosed weed?

There is a grower out there that has been dosing his grow with tetra-ethyl lead, thinking it will make his plants more potent...

You can read all about it on one of the cannabis site here on the web.

99.99 percent of the weed I smoke is organic and grown by me!

I know friends that have introduced incredibly long lasting toxins to their grow site without ever thinking about it or realizing it!

Beware there is a danger using anything from the petroleum industry for growing anything that will end up in your lungs.

Just because it is safe for food doesn't mean it is safe for something you inhale.

Sorry for preaching, Xerb

 

[xerb]

Street Drug Analysis - Have you KOME today?

Street Drug Analysis - Have you KOME today?

Does anybody remember "Street Drug Analysis" on 98.5 KOME Radio?

Everyday at noon they would give you the results of their laboratory analysis of the samples people had sent in.

You had to send in a sample, tell them what you thought it was, price, location where scored, and any other info you wanted to provide, $5 to cover the analysis, and a 10 digit number.

About a week later you could call or listen in on the radio and they would give you the results.

It was shocking to hear about all the shit stoners would do to come up with a marketable product.

Many of the mushrooms of the day were store bought mushrooms sprayed with LSD.

They never came across a sample of LSD with strychnine or speed, everybody used to complain "oh, it's too speedy". Well, as it turns out that is just the initial phase of the trip.

Hard drugs were cut with all sorts of crap - surprising because mannitol, the preferred cutting agent was available at any head shop cheap.

It was not uncommon to hear of pot and all sorts of white powders dosed with PCP.

If that was so commonly done, is it a stretch to think that some unscrupulous characters might use opiates to increase the effect of the shit they were trying to sell?

Sadly, I lost friends to these shady characters.

Remember, this was the era of sniffing glue and paint, and smoking lethal doses of PCP - most was destroyed by the heat, so few died, they just lost their minds.

Everybody should read the history of sniffing glue, people should know why this happened - a real pandemic - brought about by a totally irresponsible media.

But that is a different story....

 

[sirstonealot]

Thai stick in 1990? 1981 was the last thai stick I ever saw. As for "opiated" Thai stick, that was always the mytyh going around in the late 70's but it don't add up. Opium does not just light with direct flame, as for dipping it in some liquified opium, it still would not light. Opium is gooey and it would make no sense for farmers to spend money and time trying to put opium on the weed. An opium high is a basically half sleep, half awake nodding off, while Thai is electric up high. It's like night and day. I am an ex addict and have smoked opium and done a lot of heroin and can tell you many opiate people don't really smoke weed, and your average pot smoker would probably puke their guts out the first time they smoked opium.

Does anybody remember "Street Drug Analysis" on 98.5 KOME Radio?

Everyday at noon they would give you the results of their laboratory analysis of the samples people had sent in.

You had to send in a sample, tell them what you thought it was, price, location where scored, and any other info you wanted to provide, $5 to cover the analysis, and a 10 digit number.

About a week later you could call or listen in on the radio and they would give you the results.

It was shocking to hear about all the shit stoners would do to come up with a marketable product.

Many of the mushrooms of the day were store bought mushrooms sprayed with LSD.

They never came across a sample of LSD with strychnine or speed, everybody used to complain "oh, it's too speedy". Well, as it turns out that is just the initial phase of the trip.

Hard drugs were cut with all sorts of crap - surprising because mannitol, the preferred cutting agent was available at any head shop cheap.

It was not uncommon to hear of pot and all sorts of white powders dosed with PCP.

If that was so commonly done, is it a stretch to think that some unscrupulous characters might use opiates to increase the effect of the shit they were trying to sell?

Sadly, I lost friends to these shady characters.

Remember, this was the era of sniffing glue and paint, and smoking lethal doses of PCP - most was destroyed by the heat, so few died, they just lost their minds.

Everybody should read the history of sniffing glue, people should know why this happened - a real pandemic - brought about by a totally irresponsible media.

But that is a different story....

There's just so much misinformation about drugs, this is perpetuated by immaculate ,conservative and biased scare tactics...completely counterproductive when it comes to harm reduction and real education...strychnine and amphetamine in acid is a fine example of this!

The crack scene IMO exploded because of BS media story's this also fuled the prohibition of coca as a plant!

Peace

S.s

 

[yesum]

I doubt pot was getting laced with PCP. Too expensive to sell. LSD suffered from being impure I think rather than speed in it.

I had a friend who smoked a joint with some people he had just met while hitchhiking. Turns out the joint was laced with PCP and he ended up passing out in a ditch. I have no faith that anyone would sell you laced pot as the reward would be too little.

My boss used to sniff paint back in 80's or so. My coworker just last year overdosed on fentanyl laced heroin which he smoked. Fentanyl is cost effective for the seller so it does get added to heroin.

For opiated Thai stick, well possibly here or there, but cost effective? Probably not. This was a strain that was so far above most else at that time, that conclusions were drawn that were not right.

 

[need4weed]

In the late 90s my cousin stole a bud from her dad stash (my uncle) she have it to me for I think my 15th or 16th birthday. The bud looked almost like it had been fermented. It was dark like it had been pretty wet then dried enough to smoke. Any how, I was with another cousin one night who lived on his own. I pulled it out for a sesh. I packed a bong and took a hit. I couldn't even get through 1/4 of bong rip. It tasted like burnt plastic. Fucking horrible it was. But little did I know what I was about to encounter. I entered into a very pleasant dream like state that lasted almost 24 hours. Pure bliss. The time also passed very quickly. It was 8pm one minute and next minute 4am. I slept, woke up and still buzzed all day. I will never forget it. My cousin had the same experience and between us we couldn't finish one bong. I kept the bud and a week later shared it with some other friends. The same thing happened to all of us. About 8 of us, high as fuck for 24 hours. I have no idea what it was laced with as to this day I have never experienced that type of buzz from any drug and I've had my share of most of what's on the market