Opinions - Crushing the pods

[Akashik]

Swim has around 10 average sized? pods , swim found them around the neighborhood and now they have dried.

Swim keeps reading on how the pods must be "grinded" up into a powder.
Swim doesnt have access to a coffee grinder or anything of that sort.

So can swim use mortar & pestle?? will that work just as good? ( swim thinks it would) swim thinks its a dumb question though.

Also, he wants to "cook" the opium, he vaguely understands how , as he has never done this before and its hard to get pods around here. ( also because its winter right now)

Swim wants to know HOW to evaporate the excess water after cooking? so that the tar is left... does he just let it sit at a low temperature until there is no more water left??

He doesnt want to mess this up because these are the only pods hes got.

[everytingirie]

With only ten pods, SWIM would recommend just making tea instead of cooking flake opium. When swiy gets a hold of more pods by some means (growing or purchasing), he should definitely make some flake opium. Swim greatly enjoys it. Here's the guide.

The mortal and pestle will work just fine for swiy. SWIM likes to remove the seeds first, and use them for planting. He doesn't believe the minimal extra alkaloid content gained is worth all the disgusting oils that get added. The finer you can get it ground, the better. Also, add a bit of an acid to the water when steeping. Some lemon juice will enhance the flavor (along with sugar), but it also helps make it as potent as it can be. Re-steep a second cup out of half the amount of water. And swiy should be careful not to overdose, always start low, as swiy can always take more later.

everytingirie added 14 Minutes and 36 Seconds later...

Originally Posted by everytingirie

The mortal and pestle will work just fine for swiy.

I mean...mortar and pestle.

[Akashik]

lol , thanks for the response evertingirie!
Swim will have to try this soon, a good time when rents are asleep or away

[kant]

SWIM recalls reading somewhere here on this forum that crudely crushed pods (something one would get by using only hands) work just as fine as a powder, since, and I'll quote from memory, "the alkaloids are only on the inner and outer pod surface".

SWIM has never found any backup for this theory though. Anyone here wants to contest it? SWIM would like to see some hard facts.

[samuraigecko]

Alkaloids are contained within the pod walls. It is the latex or "sap" of the poppy pod itself which contains almost 100% of the medicinal alkaloids in a P.Somniferum plant.

Outer surface would hold little because of the skin, Inner surface would hold more but not as much as the interior of the pod wall.

Largely crushed pieces will not work as good. Pieces are crushed finely because it exposes more of the cell walls to extract from. Unless this is done right one cannot extract ALL the goodies from the pods and will be left with plant material which can be eaten to still gain an effect.

Peace

[Dr. Mario]

dude, with ten pods making tar would be a major waste of time. Personally, i think its a waste of time period. just make tea dude. all that cooking stuff is only for people with extreme patience. just tear the pods into little chunks, put a teapot on the stove, pour on the poppies and mash them on the bottom of your glass with a wooden spoon or something; this squeezes all the opium out of the poppy material into the water.... you don't need to dry them out either. you can make tea out of fresh ones and its actually more potent.
hope that helped..peace

[samuraigecko]

Making CFO (definitely NOT a tar of any kind) is no waste of time for those whom know how to do it effectively. In this case however, a tea may be more appropriate.

SWIM will explain here about extraction from particles. -

A large chunk will have a certain total surface area for an aqueous solution to penetrate and therefor extract from.

That same chunk made into a powder or fine particles will have a larger total surface area and therefor aqueous penetration and extraction is more efficient and complete.

If extraction is done properly one should be able to eat the grounds or leftovers with pretty much no effect. This is not achievable from the use of large pieces or chunks.

-----

On another note SWIM will explain why he makes CFO rather than tea.

1: when a person has a few thousand pods it is practical to make a CFO for storage reasons. A few thousand pods is hard to store compared to a small dark ball of CFO.

2: extraction and reduction of a substance produces a concentrate (the CFO itself). This concentrate can then be used to make tea, laudanum, smoke as is, further process into morphine, etc etc.

3: CFO is cleaner and has had a lot of undesirable alkaloids, plant fats, plant waxes and other flavor influencing substances removed. Because of this, any tea or laudanum made from CFO has a much cleaner effect and will not have the undesirable tastes involved with normal tea consumption.


SWIMs opinion only . . .

Peace