Smoking - Smoking Kava-Kava

[Bajeda]

Does anyone have experience with smoking Kava Kava? I'd heard of this method of consumption being used before, but now I've found that some people have made extracts for smoking with good effects.

Just tried smoking some of my isopropyl extract of kava. My conspirator K and I purchased some 4.5 oz of fairly high quality kava and soaked it in warm 70% isopropyl for an hour or so with lots of shaking, filtered out the brown extract, rinsed the container and plant matter with h2o and added the aqueous rinse to the alcohol extract. The two extracts formed a milky emulsion. This milky fluid was then slowly evaporated to a tan paste. If I had known I would be smoking it I would have skipped the aqueous rinse, but I had originally planned on using it orally.

Now that I've tried smoking it, I don't think I'll ever bother taking kava orally again. This stuff really works well when I smoke it, and seems to have a more mental effect rather than the primarily below the neck effects of oral kava. I am an extreme hardhead when it comes to kava, doses of 300 to 1500 mg kavalactones from standardized extracts have no effect or only slight bodily effects. In order to get a noticeable effect, I must consume 35 to 50 grams of relatively fresh kava extracted with alcohol. Smoking an extract of less than a gram of root has far exceeded the level of noticeable. The stuff tastes like a cross between crack and PCP, and is quite numbing, not really unpleasant to smoke at all. The effects are immediate, hard to really describe, numb-brained, tranquilized, euphoric are fitting adjectives. Reminds me vaguely of the effects of Ambien. Main drawback is the short duration. The buzz seems to dissipate considerably within only a few minutes, but each new lungful brings me right back up immediately.

This stuff is definitely going to have its place in my pharmacopea from now on. Definitely inspired to try and make a more concentrated extract, possibly using acetone or supercritical butane.

Last night in desparation for pot (and a lack thereof) I decided that I would try to smoke some Kava Kava.

I took a capsule of pure kava kava that I bought a a local health store, broke it open, and poured it into a normal tobacco pipe that I fitted with a screen.

I took two hits and was unable to finish the rest. The effects were like being stoned, only with much more awareness and a sort of inner peace. I also experienced mild hallucinations where the folds of my blanket kept turning into small furry animals. The most amazing part was the complete lack of paranoia. I felt like everything was at peace and that life was, for some reason, making sense.

After enjoying the mild trip for a little while, I began to meditate. I found this hard to do because everything I looked at was so interesting and vivid. After about 15 minutes of hard focusing, I went into a sort of trance where I pictured myself floating up above myself. The imagination was greatly enhanced. Then about and hour later I returned out of meditation and fell immediately asleep. For a person who suffers insomnia, this is just short of incredible. Not even pot would put me to sleep.

In short, smoking kava kava has made for the most relaxed that I've ever been in my life. The drug doesn't by any means make me feel happy. But I found that I was able to focus and feel at peace. The best part is, for a broke college student, that it's way sheaper then most anything and readily available at the grocery store. Also, the 'high' lasted a lot longer, granted the euphoria did not. I woke up this morning feeling completely relaxed and now, almost 10 hours later, I still feel focused and relaxed.

It sounds a bit crazy, yet intriguing.