- Opiated Thai Sticks: Myth or Truth? -

[therevverend]

This is probably the same story as angel dusted weed. Not likely but not entirely unthinkable

Cannabis dipped in Angel's Dust is real, it's fucked up. They probably still do it. Whoever the fuck 'they' is. That's where the embalming fluid story came from, or something similar. Sherm is another one, all these street names, I think we're talking about PCP. Or another similar sort of designer drug. Look up sherm using on YouTube if you want to see some fucked up shit.

I know a European guy, German I think, a grower in Mendocino, years ago a guy gave him a bowl adulterated with PCP. He drinks beer, hasn't smoked pot since. Even though he's an awesome grower. It's most prevalent in the black community. I've met people who were permanently damaged by the stuff, I mean schizophrenic type behavior. Mumbling crazy shit, violent, mood swings. Sherm is the common term. I've heard they dip the tip of a cigarette or joint in the wet solution, let it dry, then smoke a joint.

Marijuana has been adulterated with all sorts of things for hundreds of years. Tobacco is the most common mix but pot makes a good platform for load up of anything. I've smoked pot adulterated with psychedelic mushrooms, I wonder who adulterated it..ha..he.. I knew a guy who added coke, the soda pop I mean, to his pot. Then dried it. Of all the fucked up things. Made it more crystally and made it smell sweet.

I think the thing going on here is the assumption that since you didn't see it it didn't happen. Most people probably haven't smoked PCP laced buds. Or opiated buds. You find in poor areas, areas with shitty pot, lots of LEO and organized crime, this kind of shit gets more common.

The chocolate Thai was chocolate from how it was cured. Wasn't a strain thing. It was never thaied in sticks. Wasn't as nice as the sticks but it was good stuff. Superior to all the Central and South American at the time.

 

[@hempy]

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

In some parts of North America, for instance, the following combinations are found: 'Candy sticks: cannabis herb cigarettes laced with cocaine;'Buddha': cannabis herb spiked with opium; 'Ace' or ' Zoom' : cannabis herb mixed with PCP, etc.; use of cannabis in food items (e.g. in NorthAfrica'); 'Marijuana brownies' (e.g. in North America); as well as frequent use of both cannabis and alcohol (often reported from Europe and Aus-tralia).https://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/wdr07/WDR_2007_1.4_cannabis.pdf


Drugs and the Vietnam War

Drug use was rampant among GIs in the Vietnam War. Marijuana was a common recreational drug. Good quality stuff included "Thai sticks" and opium-laced hashish. Many American servicemen became addicted to heroin while in Vietnam. It was not unusual for battalion to have a single combat death but 18 from overdoes.
On one way China was helping North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Chinese Premier Chou En-lai told the president of Egypt in 1965: "Some [American troops] are trying opium, and we are helping them. We are planting the best kinds of opium especially for American soldiers in Vietnam...Do you remember when the West imposed opium on us? They fought war with opium. We are going to fight them with their own weapons."
The recreation habits of American GIs had a profound influence on the cultures not only of Vietnam, but also Thailand and Laos. In many ways the association of these countries with sex, prostitution, drugs and decadence can be tied to the American influence during the Vietnam War.
Michael Herr wrote in "Dispatches", "Going out at night the medics gave you pills, Dexedrine breath like dead snakes kept too long in a jar. [...] I knew one 4th division Lurp who took his pills by the fistful, downs from the left pocket of his tiger suit and ups from the right, one to cut the trail for him and the other to send him down it. He told me that they cooled things out just right for him, that he could see that old jungle at night like he was looking at it through a starlight scope. "They sure give you the range," he said." [Source: Michael Herr, "Dispatches", Knopf, 1977]

https://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Vietnam/sub5_9c/entry-3414.html



"Thai sticks" are small bamboo shoots filled with marijuana and laced with opium. The agreed price for these Thai sticks was $21 per stick. The persons who were to deliver the marijuana and the Thai sticks were different people. Hills returned to his farmhouse; shortly after 7:30 p.m., he left and went to the Riverview Bar where he was to meet the agents. Hills stated that the "Thai sticks" had been delivered and the person who delivered them was waiting alone at the farmhouse. En route to the farmhouse Hills stated that this person did not want to meet anyone. Upon arriving at the farmhouse, Hills, the informant and two agents entered. They passed through a limited area in the kitchen. Hills directed the three men into a den. He told the agents not to go into the living room; however, as they entered the house both agents observed the defendant-appellant, Thomas Monahan, seated in the living room. Following a discussion Hills left the den, went through the kitchen and into the living room. Following Hills into the kitchen, one agent observed Hills remove a bag from underneath a couch in the living room directly to the left of where Monahan was seated. In the den the sticks were counted, and after it was ascertained that there were 200, the bag with the sticks in it was returned to the hiding place in the living room. One agent left to get $4,200 from another agent waiting in the car while Hills brought the sticks back into the den. When the agent returned, both Hills and Monahan were arrested.
It was later discovered that the sticks were not laced with opium, but contained only marijuana and hashish.


https://law.justia.com/cases/wisconsin/supreme-court/1977/75-537-c-7.html

 

[Dr. Purpur]

Ive been getting high since 1969. It was around 73 the opiated thai sticks started coming in. It probably only was available for a few years or so. I smoked them. You could tell the difference with the high. It still had the soaring high, but had some relaxing body high as well. I doubt it was just a California thing. It wasn't pure opium. It was a byproduct water from the heroin process that they were dipped in, rather then just dumping it out.

Some of you seem to have strong feelings about this subject. I don't. I was there. I smoked plenty of both types of Thai sticks

 

[Asiatica]

Bangkok in the early 90's I was getting sticks for 100thb (around $4 each).
Wrapped in red string around a wooden chopstick.
I highly doubt it was dipped in opium but it was some special strong smoke for sure.
It burned like normal weed in my pipe, bong and joints.
Smoked them often for 2-3 years until my dealer passed away.
It was 1000% better than the crap I was getting in the compressed Thai brick.
Bricks in Cali were way better quality than the bricks in Thailand.
Thai bricks were some of the worst pot I ever got.

Thai sticks were relatively expensive compared to the bricks I was scoring for $250-300 per kilo (1 kilo = to 2.2 lbs).
Even at that price I know they charged me the farang (+10%-+25%) price even though I looked like them and I spoke fluent Thai lolol.
Note: I only bought the kilos to look for seeds and the best flowers/buds. After I salvaged decent stuff I gave what was left back to the dealer.
I know that dude loved me lolol. Great times...
Btw I still go home every year and I still hunt for the sticks. No luck since the early 90's.

 

[Donald Mallard]

Ive been getting high since 1969. It was around 73 the opiated thai sticks started coming in. It probably only was available for a few years or so. I smoked them. You could tell the difference with the high. It still had the soaring high, but had some relaxing body high as well. I doubt it was just a California thing. It wasn't pure opium. It was a byproduct water from the heroin process that they were dipped in, rather then just dumping it out.

Some of you seem to have strong feelings about this subject. I don't. I was there. I smoked plenty of both types of Thai sticks

im not sure if u read my posts dr ,
and as i said to hempy im not questioning your honesty ,,


but when you say you were there ,

that means u were in the states , scoring off some guy that told you the opium , heroin wash story right??



had you been in thailand , or spend time there ,
you would have seen the place where the opium was grown that made the heroin was no where near the place they grew the thai sticks ,
it would have been a logistical nightmare to send one to be combined with the other , so quite unlikely to have happened , particularly in large quantities where guys in america and australia were all toking this stuff ,



im sure there were different grades of thai stick , ive seen a few pictures of more green ones that looked nothing like the ones we scored here , they were possibly not as potent by the look of them , they looked fresh and uncured ..

anyhow i wont hassle you as i respect you and your posts ,
but i think its possible someone sold you good thai vs the average thai you were toking other times and gave u a story to go with it , maybe they even charged you more ,


did u read the post sam made how after a dozen times going there and asking the thais about the opium/heroin dipped stuff they said it was just a story to sell more weed??

im pretty sure thats all it was too ...

 

[MindEater]

Of course they were full of opium. Potheads are all druggies, they drink beer smoke tobacco, even 99% thc crystals aren't enough.

They sell Thai sticks in dispensaries now, hope they got enough opium in them. I guess if it leaves red crystals in the ash we will know.

 

[Im'One]

I smoked thai stocks once aboit 1976...friends friend worked at a record store in Columbia missouri. He turned me on to thai stocks and Robin Trower (Bridge of Sighs album) in the same night. Very cool.

 

[Ready4]

100% myth. Got sticks with the brown on the outside = hash oil, always MJ buzz.

Loose Thai in mid 1980's was the most powerful sativa ever IMO.
We left jobsite to go to lunch back then - smoked small joint of loose Thai on the way.
4 carpenters, only 3 smoked. I sat across from the 1 carpenter who was "on the wagon"
He inhaled his salad when it arrived - I burst out laughing, asking if he even tasted it.

He replied "That is some good shit Maynard " - his eyes were beet red = first time I saw true "contact buzz".

lol Good daze to all

 

[Gry]

Once used have a girlfriend who lived there, yeah I remember what they were like.... neat reading, almost wonder if this not IC mag at it's finest, fifty years or so's worth of memories

 

[Medfinder]

I never saw nor smoked any Thai stick in 1978-79..
That was even a reference to opium dipped.


I miss the genuine socal backyard chocolateThai.

Saw a grinespoon type pheno.. in 1982.


Heard story's but opiom drizzle ? Never saw it myself.

Some afghani 1980''s spegettie hash..thats no myth.

 

[Ready4]

This is probably the same story as angel dusted weed. Not likely but not entirely unthinkable.

Angel dusted weed was 100% real. On class trip to DC in Spring of 1978, we bought "weed" off street dealer. When we opened up, it was green leaves & powder - we smoked it & got trashed. It was marketed as "crystal t" back home. Nasty shit.

 

[musigny23]

im not sure if u read my posts dr ,
and as i said to hempy im not questioning your honesty ,,

but when you say you were there ,

that means u were in the states , scoring off some guy that told you the opium , heroin wash story right??

had you been in thailand , or spend time there ,
you would have seen the place where the opium was grown that made the heroin was no where near the place they grew the thai sticks ,
it would have been a logistical nightmare to send one to be combined with the other , so quite unlikely to have happened , particularly in large quantities where guys in america and australia were all toking this stuff ,

im sure there were different grades of thai stick , ive seen a few pictures of more green ones that looked nothing like the ones we scored here , they were possibly not as potent by the look of them , they looked fresh and uncured ..

anyhow i wont hassle you as i respect you and your posts ,
but i think its possible someone sold you good thai vs the average thai you were toking other times and gave u a story to go with it , maybe they even charged you more ,

did u read the post sam made how after a dozen times going there and asking the thais about the opium/heroin dipped stuff they said it was just a story to sell more weed??

im pretty sure thats all it was too ...

I have to agree. I'd like to be respectful also, but I "was there" too. In both northern CA where loads often landed and later in Thailand where I traveled around the country in the 80s.

I'll repeat, over a ten year period, I handled and experienced many batches of sticks and un tied Thai. None, zero had any opiate content. Besides my firsthand experience, there are too many problems for it to be true.

The single biggest problem (besides how to infuse it) is that if there is enough opiate to feel effects, there is enough to make novice users feel sick and vomit, and enough for chronic smokers to develop physical dependence. Even if you managed to not get nauseous and vomit the first few times, after smoking daily for a week or two opiate dependence would start happening. No way it wouldn't.

Add to that the extra time, effort and logistics plus practical considerations that we're talking about hill tribes growing poppies far from where rice farmers grow cannabis and why would they do that?

Had it been true, the reality would have been utterly clear within a few weeks of a load arriving. Lots of kids getting sick and/or addicted. Simple as that. It would have been very bad for those in the business. The Authorities would have freaked out and gone after it much faster and harder.

In other words, if you had to wonder if there was opiate in your sticks, there wasn't. If you believed there was, and no one was getting sick or addicted from smoking them, just way high, there wasn't.

 

[Gry]

Angel dusted weed was 100% real. On class trip to DC in Spring of 1978, we bought "weed" off street dealer. When we opened up, it was green leaves & powder - we smoked it & got trashed. It was marketed as "crystal t" back home. Nasty shit.

You were sent to the wrong street. DC had at least one street for every drug.
A block or two over, you would likely have been just fine.
Neat story that sounds authentic . I find seldom find mentioned that pcp was
the primary drug of choice in that era. It was, and remained so until coke became the next cult up to bat.

 

[Hammerhead]

IMO it wasn't commercially available. Back in 80's getting Thai stick was easy in SF on haight and ashbury st. You could get anything there. Could someone have add opium after the fact,sure. Adding hash or oil was much more likely. Adding opium defeats the purpose of smoking good Thai stick. Opium doesn't smell/taste good. The high would over power any effect from the Thai. Good Thai wouldn't need anything added.


PCP was popular in certain areas in 1980. It wasn't hard to find.. It wasn't a drug of choice for us. We called them Sherms

 

[GOT_BUD?]

Sherm! That was they used to call it.

Anybody remember the movie Friday? Smokey smoked weed laced with Angel Dust. "I started feeling funny as hell. I ended up in D-Bo's pigeon coop sweating like a slave. Only one who could get me out was my momma."

 

[Ready4]

You were sent to the wrong street. DC had at least one street for every drug.
A block or two over, you would likely have been just fine.
Neat story that sounds authentic . I find seldom find mentioned that pcp was
the primary drug of choice in that era. It was, and remained so until coke became the next cult up to bat.

It was very popular for a few years... until the truth came out
that "crystal t" was really Angel dust & all the bad affects were revealed. LSD was a kinder more enjoyable trip by far !

 

[Boyd Crowder]

never seen thai stick in nearly 50 years

once, only once, a friend from chicago scored us a dime of sherm
prolly stolen from his dad, i paid the 10 for it tho

he said it "pcp" was in it, was a light dusting of whiteish powder on the 3 joint sack
we were all excited so we scored some beers to go riding
we lit a joint , i was driving us around and ... i just couldnt drive anymore
it felt like i needed to run a marathon

shit was a awful flavor, got us really twisted and we just wound up at the quarry most of the weekend, swimming and finishing off that crappy sack for 3 days

ivee had a cigarette dipped in "formaldehyde"
couldnt finish a hit, it was some serious poison
buzz was not at all pleasant

in our bassackaward town, they even hit freon from the old blue/green bottles

sorry to go off topic op

 

[GOT_BUD?]

never seen thai stick in nearly 50 years

once, only once, a friend from chicago scored us a dime of sherm
prolly stolen from his dad, i paid the 10 for it tho

he said it "pcp" was in it, was a light dusting of whiteish powder on the 3 joint sack
we were all excited so we scored some beers to go riding
we lit a joint , i was driving us around and ... i just couldnt drive anymore
it felt like i needed to run a marathon

shit was a awful flavor, got us really twisted and we just wound up at the quarry most of the weekend, swimming and finishing off that crappy sack for 3 days

ivee had a cigarette dipped in "formaldehyde"
couldnt finish a hit, it was some serious poison
buzz was not at all pleasant

in our bassackaward town, they even hit freon from the old blue/green bottles

sorry to go off topic op

I watched a guy almost die taking a hit off a 20 lb. freon tank. Froze his lungs. Ended up in the hospital for 2 and a half months. 3 weeks out of the hospital he killed himself driving drunk.

 

[troutman]

Ever seen opium smoked?

They have to force it to vaporize with a strong flame.

Doesn't sound like smoking a joint at all. It would go out, no?

An opium den was an establishment where opium was sold and smoked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_den

 

[troutman]

Personally, I think opium and hashish mixed together sounds more appealing for medicinal purposes.