Jungle Fever: Smoking Paraphernalia & Legal Highs

In the United Kingdom, some mushrooms are classified as Class A drugs because of the level of high that they produce when ingested. Any mushrooms that contain the chemicals psilocybin or psilocin are illegal and considered Class A drugs. Some other mushrooms, those that do not contain these chemicals, are perfectly legal to possess and grow, but illegal to sell for human consumption.

Many online headshops offer a variety of mushroom spore kits, and many times these mushrooms are not legal for human consumption. Sellers get around this law by clearly stating on their websites that the mushrooms or kits are not for human consumption or are sold only for “research purposes”. It is perfectly legal to buy these mushroom kits, grow these mushrooms, and possess them. Many of these mushrooms can produce various levels of a high, though they also come with a danger.

No one should use a mushroom to get high without careful and diligent research. They should also make sure to always do so in a safe environment in case their experience is not pleasant. Some people enjoy the experience they get from mushrooms that are legal to possess in the United Kingdom, but some have had unpleasant experiences and do not try them again.

It is important to remember that just because these mushrooms are all natural it does not mean they are safe. If you feel any adverse effects following your experience with any mushrooms, whether purchased through headshops or grown and gathered yourself, please make sure to seek out medical treatment immediately.

Unlike herbs that can be smoked or used with vaporizers like the Eclipse Vape-2O Vaporizer, mushrooms are ingested, so please be sure you know which one you are taking and do your research ahead of time.

Botanical herbs have been used for thousands of years for their medicinal and calming properties. Long before modern medicine and synthetic drugs, these herbs have helped people heal their bodies, calm their minds, and help them get through the everyday highs and lows of life.

Herbs are commonly used to induce legal highs, but they also help take the edge off for people with anxiety and social phobias. Some herbs can act as stimulants, such as Indo Kratom, while some are used to help people deal with daily stress, such as Skullcap. Others offer a safe and legal alternative to marijuana, with herbal replacements such as Wild Opium Lettuce, Wild Dagga, and Baybean, which is used in Mexico as an alternative to marijuana.

Many herbs are completely safe and suitable for use by those who are 18 and older if they are used responsibly and treated with respect. Some herbs can also be great for medicinal purposes and offer treatments for ailments such as menstrual cramps, lack of energy, and mood disorders.

Botanical herbs can be smoked with the use of a Lolite or rolled with tobacco in a Rizla rolling machine tin, but many are also recommended for use in herbal teas or powder form. Depending on the desired effects, these herbs can be taken safely in a variety of different dosages.

Most botanical herbs tend to act as sedatives or create mellow feelings in the user that are comparable to cannabis. Many of these can also be grown at home and seeds can be purchased easily online, unlike cannabis seeds which are illegal in the UK and in many different countries around the world.

Try some of these 100% legal herbal blend options the next time you are looking to mellow out or relieve some anxiety.

In the United Kingdom, it is not illegal to buy, trade or possess cannabis seeds. Many headshops are even able to sell them within the country as souvenirs or collectors pieces. It is illegal, however, to buy, sell, or use cannabis as a drug. Some countries around the world have made the use of cannabis legal, such as Holland for example, while still others, such as the United States, have some states where it is legal to have cannabis for medical purposes.

Buying cannabis seeds is surprisingly easy in the United Kingdom. They simply cannot be sold for cultivation. This is what sets them apart. So while it is perfectly legal for you to buy, sell, trade and possess cannabis seeds, it is not legal to use the drug.

People in countries around the world where cannabis is legal, however, purchase cannabis seeds, cultivate the plants and then use the cannabis as a drug. Some countries have made it completely legal to smoke cannabis, and many people in those countries will make use of the rolling machine rizla and spinning ashtrays to create a really great experience.

This information is strictly for educational purposes only, because it is illegal to get high on cannabis in the United Kingdom. There are some legal cannabis substitutes, however, that can be found at headshops around the United Kingdom. These substitutes offer a mild high that is usually 100% herbal, just like cannabis, but completely legal.

The legal status of cannabis seeds can be confusing. Under the Drugs Misuse Act 1971 the cultivating of cannabis seeds is illegal. However, as the seeds do not contain significant levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, it is legal to buy, sell and possess seeds that have not germinated. A private member’s bill proposing the banning of cannabis seeds did get a reading in the House of Commons in 2008, but it failed to gain traction before it ran out of parliamentary time. Successive governments have been reluctant to criminalise cannabis seeds so their legal status seems unlikely to be changed for the foreseeable future. It can appear inconsistent that owning the seeds is acceptable yet growing them is not. However, it should be noted that large scale cannabis growers use cuttings, not seeds, and the seeds actually have a range of legitimate uses.

For example cannabis seeds have traditionally been used as bait by anglers. Boiled before use, they are a particularly effective lure for enticing carp. Birds, both wild and domestic, are also very fond of the seeds. For many years bird feed companies were among the few exempted from the total prohibition of hemp in the United States.

However, cannabis seeds are also fit for human consumption. They are extremely nutritious being a quarter protein and high in vitamins and essential fats such as Omega-3 and Omega-6. When dried and pressed they can also produce oil that is very low in saturated fats. This cannabis seed oil does not fry very well as it has a low smoking temperature, but it makes an excellent dressing. It has a nutty flavour, which is perhaps unsurprising considering that cannabis seeds are technically nuts. Cannabis seed oil has also been widely used in cosmetics as it moisturises the skin well without being greasy.

Kanna is the common name for Sceletium tortuosum; this herb originates from South Africa where it has a long history as a mood elevator and anti-depressant. The precise chemical mechanism is still not fully understood, but Kanna contains alkaloids, in particular mesembrines, that appear to work in a similar fashion to modern pharmaceutical SSRIs like Prozac.

The benefits of using Kanna are a reduction in stress and anxiety and an uplifting of moods. It is particularly useful for those suffering from irritability, phobias, depression and post traumatic stress disorder. In high doses it can produce a euphoric feeling followed by a period of sedation. Kanna has relatively few negative side effects, but some users report headaches, slight nausea, a loss of appetite and insomnia. It is recommended that Kanna should be avoided by those who are pregnant or on psychiatric or sedative drugs.

Kanna can be sold as preformed pills in 50mg doses or more cheaply as a loose powder. This can be slowly chewed dry or mixed in with hot water and drunk as a tea. It can also be smoked or vaporized using a vaporizer like the Iolite by those who want to avoid the carcinogens and other toxins produced by burning. Some users even prefer to snort Kanna. A snuff bullet blizzard can be a useful tool for storing and measuring out Kanna for those who choose this method.

Legal highs fall into several categories. In this article, we will look at the main divisions, though some legal highs can fall into more than one category. As always, it cannot be stressed enough that legal does not necessarily mean safe, and that something labelled ‘legal ecstasy’, for example, can be just as powerful, or even more powerful, as the real thing.

Legal Speed and Ecstasy

These drugs mimic the effects of amphetamines and MDMA, or ecstasy, which combines amphetamines with a mild hallucinogen, which makes colours and sounds appear more vivid.  Products such as High Beams, which are sold as a legal alternative, tend to be synthetic drugs with little herbal content, and it is not always easy to tell exactly what is in them. Suppliers usually warn you not to take them with alcohol, as they can lead to dehydration and the mother of all hangovers.

Legal Hallucinogens

These are typically natural drugs such as fly agaric mushrooms or salvia, which have been used for centuries to promote trance-like states and hallucinations. As they are plant or fungus based, people often assume that the effects are milder than those of synthetic drugs, but this is not always the case. Very often, they are labelled as being for research purposes only and not for human consumption, in order to exploit a loophole in the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Smoking Blends

These are blends of herbs and flowers that can be smoked in a Roor pipe, converted into roll-ups using a Rizla rolling machine, used in vaporizers such as the Volcano Vaporizer or Iolite, or inhaled like snuff using the Blizzard Snuff Bullet.

Blends available include Pineapple Express, a pineapple scented mixture of herbs and synthetic chemicals inspired by the film of the same name, and Algerian Blend, which contains five psychoactive herbs soaked in valerian and wild lettuce resins for a sedative effect. Smoked to excess, however, it can act like an opiate, so be careful.

The pills have been popped, the herbal smoking blends have been safely disposed of in a spinning ashtray and you are recovering from a great night out. However, just like with illegal drugs, users of legal highs can experience a comedown after partying too hard.  This article looks at some of the ways you can restore vitality the morning after the night before.

Multivitamins

Your body can lose vitamins and minerals while you are off your face on legal highs.  Many online head shops sell recovery products designed to replace these nutrients, though there seems to be little difference to similar products sold in high street chemists, apart from the price.

Serotonin Boosters

Many legal highs boost the production of serotonin, the brain’s natural ‘happy chemical’, which can then become depleted, leading to a comedown.  Serotonin boosters operate on a ‘hair of the dog’ principle, giving a small boost of serotonin to regulate brain chemistry more effectively.

Valerian

Valerian is a herb used as a natural sedative, to help bring people down from the buzz caused by legal highs, if they need it, to allow for a good night’s sleep, and also as an anti-spasmodic.  A summary of studies into Valerian’s effectiveness published in the American Journal of Medicine showed mixed results, finding a statistically significant improvement in the sleep quality of those taking the herb, but finding evidence of bias and flawed methodology in the studies themselves.  However, it has been highly valued in both western herbalism and traditional Indian medicine for many centuries.

The word shamanism refers to a variety of practices designed to induce a trance-like state that practitioners believe will expand human consciousness beyond the limits of the mundane natural world and into the realms of the spirit. Chief among these are fast drumming at 230 beats per minute or higher, ritual dances and the use of certain herbs. It is the latter that most relates to the topic of legal highs.

Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Ritual Plant Use

Cannabis seeds have been found in Bronze Age burial pits in Romania and on board Viking long ships. The paraphernalia found alongside them would appear to indicate that they were smoked ritually. Archaeological finds from the Western Han dynasty in China also inspired the Red Dragon herbal blend from the American company Earth Spell Exotic Herbs LLC, based in Colorado Springs. Closer to home, the Nine Herbs Charm is an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem that provides detailed rituals for collecting nine sacred herbs to use as medicine or to promote a dream-state. In particular, mugwort, the first herb mentioned, is sometimes smoked by modern day shamans to induce what they refer to as ‘astral dreaming’.

Legal Highs in Shamanism Today

The original herb used by the Siberian shamans, who gave their name to the practice of shamanism as ‘shaman’ means priest in the Tungusic languages of Siberia, was the fly agaric mushroom. A powerful hallucinogen, it is legal to own in the UK, but must be labelled “not for human consumption” if sold.

Another popular herbal high used by Native American shamans, or medicine men, was wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa). Often sold by online head shops, either in plant form or as part of an incense blend, it tends to be marketed as an aphrodisiac and sleep aid, a rather contradictory combination, one might think, rather than as a gateway to the spirit world. However, the Hopi Indians smoked the resin of this plant in order to enhance dream states, a practice continued by many shamans today.

The law has a classification system for drugs consisting of three categories, based on the amount of danger they are considered to pose to a user. It is illegal to possess, use or sell these drugs that include heroin, ecstasy and LSD (Class A), cannabis and certain amphetamines (Class B), and GHB and ketamine (Class C). The law, under the Misuse of Drugs Act, has various punishments if a person is found to be using, in possession of or selling any of these.

There are many substances that provide the same effects as illegal drugs, or effects that are very similar. These may be types of herbs, fungi, crystals or powders, and the Misuse of Drugs Act does not control these. However most of these substances are considered illegal, under legislation currently in force for medicines. Sellers of these substances have a variety of terms used to refer to them, and they cannot be advertised, sold or supplied for human consumption. Phrases frequently used are ‘research chemicals’, ‘bath crystals’ or ‘plant food’.

Sellers of legal highs have a wide range of paraphernalia to assist with the taking of these particular drugs. They include Roor Pipes, Iolite vaporizers, rolling machine Rizla, glass ashtrays, the snuff bullet blizzard and hookahs.

Other useful accessories include bongs and pipes, grinders and stash pots, digital scales, lighters and spinning ashtrays. Many such products have been developed for their novelty and aesthetic design and, as well as being highly practical, have an added ornamental value.

Although legal highs are widely used, it does not mean that your safety is guaranteed when you use them. Legal highs cannot be sold for human consumption and many outlets state that they are for research or scientific purposes only. This is the only way that the thousands of online suppliers can sell legal highs.

It is important to realise that since many legal highs are designed to mimic illegal drugs and that they can be as strong, if not stronger than the real thing. Therefore many people become ill or suffer undesirable effects, just as they would from illegal drugs. The truly worrying fact about legal highs is that there is very little research carried out on them. As a result, we know almost nothing about their long-term effects on health.

In addition, you may be purchasing a legal high that has components of illegal drugs, unbeknownst to you. This may find you getting into serious trouble if caught with the drug, even though you bought it believing it to entirely be legal. This is a great concern to the UK government and criminal justice department and possibly as soon as autumn 2011, new laws could be introduced banning some currently legal highs altogether.

If you are buying and using legal highs, ensure that you are in familiar surroundings, not mixing them with alcohol and always with people that you regard as friends or whom you trust. Remember that different drugs affect people in varying ways. It is also worth noting that using devices such as the Iolite can prevent you breathing in noxious gases when inhaling vaporised drugs.