Dose - San pedro noob questions

[nVert]

Somebody I know recently got a hold of some san pedro. He has heard that a 12inch section should do the trick, but then at the same time he's heard that it takes about 100grams of dried material. He dried out 2 sections of cactus that were over 12inches each and only ended up with less than 50grams?? What's the deal? Is it less potent once it's been dried? Also on another note, does leaving it in the dehydrater too long effect potency? Sorry if these questions have been answered already, tried searching, no luck.

[caltrain208]

What part of the cactus did SWIY use? If SWIY only used the green layer immediately below the skin, it's reasonable to end up with about 25g per 12". When SWIM peels and dries his doses he usually ends up with about 40-50g of material, but he uses everything except the core. If most of SWIY's dried San Pedro comes from the green layer, his ~50g should be relatively potent. Also, SWIM has read recommendations for using anywhere from 20-100g dried material per dose.

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[nVert]

He peeled it but left the core in there. Some flesh was taken off with the skin but not alot just a little bit here and there.

[caltrain208]

What was the diameter of SWIY's cuttings? SWIM usually uses fairly thick cacti. Since San Pedro potency varies so greatly, it's likely the ~50g SWIY has could contain anywhere from one medium dose to a borderline overdose if taken at once (though nowhere near a lethal dose). Mescaline tends to be rather forgiving at high doses, so if SWIY decides to eat all 50g at once and the cactus happens to be very potent he won't end up having a terrifying experience. SWIM has taken 26" of dried San Pedro (he was unable to weight it) and although he tripped very hard the experience was very positive, and not overwhelming. However, SWIY will still probably have a good experience using ~25g of his dried cactus.

To answer a previous question of SWIY's: as a general rule, when ethnobotanicals are dried, they lose someof their potency. Not anything too significant though.

[nVert]

Thanks for the input. SWIM didn't measure the cacti but they seemed pretty thick. SWIM has 2 more cuttings that he will dry out, then he is planning an alcohol extraction. How does the extraction effect potency? Also is it necessary to peel the cacti when planning to extract? SWIM heard that someone still got very nauseous when they left the skin on before an extraction.

[caltrain208]

The alcohol extraction sounds like a good idea. SWIM was planning to do the same thing this weekend with about 10 doses but is still waiting to get the cactus.

SWIM remembers reading on this forum that it's not necessary to remove the skins prior to an alc. extraction, making it an easy preparation. However, since SWIM has never tried an alcohol extraction with San Pedro before, he isn't positive leaving the skins on won't induce nausea. SWIM believes if the skins are not alcohol soluble then they won't be in mescaline prepared with an alcohol extract.

SWIM would recommend preforming the extraction at least twice (with new alcohol each time) to ensure greatest potency. This method should extract almost all of the mescaline if preformed properly.