Ill from Poppy Tea

[Hard Rain]

Lately, SWIM has become violently ill from poppy tea -- projectile vomiting, severe stomach cramps and a blinding headache.

This has happened from two different batches of poppy heads, so SWIM assumes it's not just a case of a bad batch.

SWIM is guessing that 1) SWIM is dosing too high-SWIM typically uses 7 medium-small poppy heads to 2 cups of water, or 2) SWIM is sensitive/allergic to one of the alkaloids in the dried poppy heads.

1) seems unlikely, as SWIM doesn't have any other overdose symptoms (tight throat, itchiness, etc.) and SWIM has a high opiate tolerance -- when not using tea, SWIM takes about 100 mg oxycodone or 150 ms contin daily.

Any suggestions (additional filtration, etc.) that could solve SWIM's problem and allow SWIM to enjoy tea again?

Thanks much in advance for helping SWIM.

[gunnaknow]

SWIM has read before that drinking poppy tea can cause stomach upsets and nausea. Ginger is very effective at treating nausea, so the tea is best with lots of ginger, which makes it taste much better aswel. SWIM has read that smoking the opiates is much less likely to induce nausea, so SWIY may want to filter the tea, evaporate off the water and then smoke the opium.

[samuraigecko]

another 2 solutions, if SWIyou still like to drink the tea instead.

De-fat and de-wax the solution with paraffin wax as per CFO method but keep it as a solution to drink and even reduce it using the Ice-o-lation technique, this will further filter unwanted baddies from the solution.

OR

SWIyou could make CFO, then use that CFO to make SWIyour tea's from by dissolving an amount of CFO in hot water, green tea, normal tea, etc etc. SWIM has done this before and found it alot more enjoyable than the strait tea made from pods. He has also made laudanums from the CFO aswell. He done this by making mulled wine (heated wine with cloves and cinnamon sticks (and a vanilla stick too if SWIM remembers correctly) and dissolved CFO into that.

Hope this has helped

[Hard Rain]

SWIM thanks you both for the great suggestions. Not only to fight the sickies but also to help improve the vulgar taste. SWIM has a hard time getting it down -- has to plug the nose, gulp and hope for the best.

Today, SWIM filtered the tea more thoroughly than SWIM has before with three-four layers of wet coffee filters (usually, SWIM just uses a wire-mesh strainer) and did a little evaporation in a low convection oven before drinking. The results were much better -- no illness, no vomiting. Might be a good method for other SWIMMERS who get sick from raw tea. Plus, SWIM found it much easier to drink without all of the residue.

Admittedly, the buzz was more mellow without all of the poppy residue, but SWIM would rather have the milder buzz than spend the day vomiting. But that's just SWIM.

Thanks again!

[samuraigecko]

Instead of just steeping there is a much better way.

The reason why SWIyou got a milder effect with this particular tea is because all of the possible alkaloids were not extracted.

When SWIyou were "gulping the lot down", SWIyou were also gulping down the rest of the dried material which would have held the rest of the available alkaloids along with a fair amount of undesired material which would have included dirt, cellulose, chlorophyll, plant fats, plant waxes etc etc which would have contributed to making SWIyou feel sick.

If SWIM were to steep it under heat for a time (do not exceed 80 Celsius) in a slightly acidic solution (6 to 6.5 pH) as described in the first few steps of the CFO method then SWIyou would come out with a far superior end result as all of the alkaloids would have been extracted into SWIyour "tea" preparation.

Filter off using wire mesh first so to remove the larger particles before filtering with the coffee filters. This can then be further filters and reduced with the Ice-o-lation step and the Paraffin wax step.

This will help SWIyou achieve the best possible tea with the least possible contaminants and precipitates.

Hope this has been of help