Opinions - Any Calamus Fans?

[Lady Codone]

Anyone here tried calamus root? SWIM's pet snail recently bought some powdered root at a health store and was anxious to try it. From what SWIM's read, there's a pretty high incidence of bad experiences associated with it, namely vomiting, SWIM's biggest drug-related fear. She's not interested in "getting wasted", just enjoying a mild, pleasant boost during the day.

SWIM's done her research, she just wants some personal opinions/experiences...or advice. Whatever you got!

Thx

[rawbeer]

SWIM has tried dried and fresh root, chewed and smoked. He recommends chewing the fresh root, the dried root is harder to manage - or to avoid swallowing - and has a harsher flavor. Fresh root can be purchased online or harvested, but there are varieties of sweet flag that are toxic, so be careful if you do that.
It's a nice stimulant and the smell is nice and Xmas-y.

[Lady Codone]

Thanks for the advice! Calamus doesn't seem too popular on Erowid lol.

SWIM has 2 ounces of organic calamus root powder and can't figure out what to do with it. She doesn't want to swallow it for fear of vomiting and doesn't know what effect, if any, smoking would have. She was thinking about just swishing it around in her mouth with some water and spitting it out after like 5 minutes...would this work?

[rawbeer]

Seems like it might work - you're basically doing the same thing as chewing it. You could also try making a tincture. Swallowing the root, or a lot of saliva if you're chewing, can upset the stomach, like chewing tobacco, but a little won't hurt. Again, next time I would recommend the fresh root - the main problem swim has had with dry is that it's so crumbly and broken into such little pieces that it's real hard not to swallow any, and it gets all over the place in your mouth - the whole fresh root, once dried a bit, stays together for long enough for the effects to soak in, and is more potent. The more of a numbing, burning sensation you feel in the mouth the better (it shouldn't be a bad burn though, more like a heavy minty burn) and the longer you sustain that sensation, the better the effects.
What might be nice is if you could somehow get the powder in a little baggie like some forms of chewing tobacco come in. I don't know how you'd go about doing that though.
I honestly have to say, one of my favorite things to do with calamus is just smell it, or set it out like potpouri...something about that smell I just love, as I said before it always reminds me of christmas.

[Shanty Finn]

Swim used it.

Its only real good use is a stomac tonic.

It is non-toxic in a basic sense of the word but Calamus encourages bile production. So when one consumes a lot of it, body makes too much bile and pukes most of it out.

Swim played around with it. Smoking, chewing, making tea.

Tea of varying doses trying to get an effect. Swim did two table spoons in boiled, then chilled water.

Only thing of note was an extremly mild "speedy" sensation. Remanisant of that speedy feeling one gets with LSD. But not particualy fun or notable.