DOSE: T+ 0:00	12 oz	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine	(liquid)
T+ 0:12	1 bowl	smoked	Catnip	(plant material)
T+ 0:31	12 oz	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine	(liquid)
T+ 0:41	1 bowl	smoked	Catnip	(plant material)
T+ 1:39	12 g	oral	Catnip	(tea)
T+ 2:00	12 g	oral	Catnip	(tea)

BODY WEIGHT:

80 kg

Hello my fellow erowidians,

So, I've been out-of my regular smokey substance for quite a bit now (one month, which for me resembles quite a bit, being an everyday smoker of weed), and I figured I would get the most available substance ever a try: Catnip. Although I'd like to refer to it 'Nepeta cataria', or just 'nippy' :-)

What follows is a 'live' report of my feelings and moods at the time.

9:20 - Packed a pipe full of catnip. Bought the pipe today. Quite the expensive one too, was approximately $50. Although, I'm not short of cash, and I figured a pipe was good to have in general. Pipe lovers would hang me for this kind of thing! I smoked the pipe earlier today with regular pipe tobacco. Never realized how nice that smelled. Didn't have any noticeable effects though, it's just tobacco! Also, I'm drinking a beer as I go along this, but the weak stuff that's available around here is just 3.5%, so it probably won't have any effect at all.

9:30 - Started typing the report :) Must say I'm pretty excited to find out if this stuff does *anything* at all. I'm skeptic. Perhaps that's a bad thing - but then again - if I do notice something I'll know it's for real!

9:32 - Burn baby burn! The flames are gettin' higher. For those people out there that don't get the obvious hint, I just lit my pipe!

9:33 - First hit from pipe. Smoke was quite harsh. Smells like I'm cooking a barbeque meal out here and forgot to turn off the fire. Charred meat. Tastes kinda smokey. Felt it a little bit at the first hit. Tastes somewhat like a barbeque sauce I just adore. In retrospect I like it!

9:35 - Still smoking. Keeping the smoke in for about 10-20 seconds before releasing (I love that smell :). Still heavily reminds me of barbequeing. How pleasant. My next-door roomie didn't complain about any odd smells yet (he's a non-smoker). Decided to open a window.

9:38 - This stuff actually burns better than pipe tobacco, but not too fast. Smoke is still a bit harsh, but liveable. No real effects yet. Although I feel 'something', it's really really just a slight effect. Might even be placebo.

9:40 - Decide to take it up a notch, holding the lighter over the nippy while taking a deep suck at the pipe. Hotter smoke - Which I believe translates to more chemical reactions. Hopefully the good ones :) Got used to the smoke by now, so no problem. Kept it in for about 20 seconds, then released. Basically take a hit and write progress reports :)

9:51 - Puffed real fast, real soft, real hard and real long. Basically tried to get the most out of the rest of the burning catnip that I had left in my bowl. Cats started meowing outside my door (which was closed), so decided to play with them a little - They go crazy for this stuff! I guess they sure as hell are enjoying themselves :) Me, I decide to grab another low-alcohol beer. Don't feel much yet.

9:56 - Spoke a little to my roomy. Had a little 'slur' as I sometimes have when smoking MJ. Kinda like my mouth gets overmoist, and I try to talk and I know I sound different. Almost as if I swallowed my own voice. Don't know how to explain it really. No other significant effects. Had a little trouble saying something and had to laugh about something, but I usually laugh a lot with my roomy, so no news there. Don't really feel any 'high' :)

10:00 - Attempting to drink the entire 33cl of beer as soon as possible and smoking a menthol cigarette :-) Ignoring the door-scratching cat. I want effects, now! Actually made a few typo's. Might be because of the nip :) But don't feel anything noticeable. Contemplating a second bowl...

10:01 - Packing that bowl I contemplated about. Cat in my room is getting cosy with the bedsheets. She can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but I really like her :) A real kitten. My roomy doesn't like it (her meowing) so much I guess, but deep down he loves her too I'm sure :) Feel a bit happier. Might just be the thoughts of kittens!

10:59 - Well, much has transpired in the last hour. My roomie walked in and was curious enough to ask about my newly bought pipe, the vanilla pipe tobacco (smells delicious, fresh out of the pack! Almost as good as freshly ground coffee or weed!) and the catnip adventures. We then decided to smoke some normal pipe together (he doesn't smoke, but likes to experiment a bit - but too much smoke makes him sick, and I guess that's a good thing!) We then kinda helped out doing his bedsheets while I toyed around with the idea of making a tea out of the nippies I had. I finally pursued my tea idea (roomy still super-interested) and figured I would cut up a normal tea bag. Couldn't fit enough in there, and felt an urge to just ditch the whole bag idea and soak the grounded up leaves directly in boiling water. So said, so done.

After soaking about half of what I had remaining (quite the bit - I started out with 25 grams of catnip, and a pipe doesn't pack that much AT ALL. So it's fair to assume my first cup of tea was made out of about 12.5 grams of catnip. Soaked the leafs, then filtrated using an old shirt. Worked extremely well, and if I didn't know better this 'tea' would be any regular tea from the shops. Even my roomie agreed that with me. Tasted quite good, not bitter really.

Being quite frustrated that I still didn't feel any big effects (I felt a tiiiiny bit of muscle weakness) I decided to make another cup of tea. However this time I directly put the leaves (remaining 12.5 g) in cold water, stirred it around a bit and put that in the microwave at 800 watts. Let that spin for a few minutes (two to be exact) and calmly stood by and looked at that glass spinning around in the micro. When the water started to bubble between the leaves (catnip is very 'floaty' and almost all of it was concentrated at the top of the glass) I decided to stir it around an additional bit. Then another minute of microwaving and my nip was done. I then took the glass and decided to soak it for an additional 15 (!) minutes on my desk. This is my last nip, and I'm going to try and get the best out of it. So that later on I can't say I did anything wrong! :-)

The water, as opposed to the first time I made nippy, is MUCH darker now. MUCH. Almost black. I consider that to be a good sign. Pure intuition though :-) I'm going back to the micro in a few seconds to give it YET another heating spin. And yet another cooldown. That cooldown period will be shorter though, about 5 minutes. Or that said, about enough to tell you about my garlic adventures (garlic?, yes garlic!) Be right back my friends!

11:20 - There we go, catnip tea. The proper way. Or at least it feels like a huge improvement on my first try. Roomy went to bed. This tea looks like it might actually taste bad, considering that it's almost black. It's more like really dark brown with a shade of gray :) It tastes much more bitter too. But so does any tea that soaks too long. Yet I'm inclined to drink it all as fast as possible in order to receive the maximum effect. Gotta let it cool down a bit first though ,-)

One of the bad things that happened is that the tea actually boiled over and I had to perform quite an astonishing balancing act while pouring the water from the plate back into the glass. Nothing got lost or spilled, so I'm quite happy about that!

Back to my garlic adventures. While earlier on in the story I was busy tending to my tea, my roomy said that eating raw garlic would actually help against the flue. And since he had been a bit sniffy throughout the week, he decided to put that theory to the test. We decided we were the herbal busters, kinda like the mythbusters (great show!) yet different. 'Does catnip get you high?'. Myth still not busted, neither confirmed :-) I obviously had to join in on this garlic vaganza and decided to eat my own part of fresh garlic. I managed to get it down (after chewing on it for a while, heh) but it was pretty strong.

Anyhow, back to the tea. It cooled down a bit, and I'm 'nipping' (get it - nipping?) away on it. While I work down the glass I feel like I should check out some more reports, especially on tea. So I'll do just that and come back to you lot when I'm done with the tea and the reading ,)

11:35 - Done with the tea. Didn't find too many exciting reports online regarding nippy. Last part of the tea was hard to get in, not too pleasant tasting plus a bit of particles at the bottom that were quite evident. Will filtrate twice next time, just to make sure there's no residual substance. I just don't like that :-) Not feeling anything, perhaps a really really really slight buzz, but I doubt if that's from the catnip - might just as well come from the low grade import beer or the fact that it's a bit late. Have no problems typing at all (going at the regular speed) and my thought process seems just as normal.

11:46 - Reread my entire report on typo's and such and gave the tea some time to do some additional 'work'. I feel somewhat relaxed, but that might just as well be the alcohol. I've decided that catnip isn't the best way to get you high, and it certainly doesn't produce a big enough buzz for me to replace MJ.

Perhaps the tea works a little bit relaxing, and I kinda of regret that I can't tell if it's the beer or the catnip that has made me a little bit more relaxed. Thinking of wrapping this up and posting it now.

Conclusion:

For those willing to expirement with catnip, give it a try! Perhaps it will produce better effects for you than it did for me - but I think most of the hype around catnip is purely a placebo effect. It's a nice alternative when you're looking to do something similar to your normal ritual, but I don't think catnip is potent enough to get a serious buzz going.

Right now I'm listening to some music. Due to all the excitement I forgot all about that. Perhaps if I had some good music on all the time, I would've gotten more into the 'mood'. Perhaps the setting wasn't entirely correct. Perhaps this specific brand of catnip just isn't suited for legal highs as most people call it. All in all, I would definitely try it again some day with some fresh grown catnip. Me and my roomy are seriously considering growing some nice plants, including everyday kitchen herbs. Hopefully that will get us cooking a lot more :-) I actually love to cook and experiment, so that's going to be a nice testbed for me to also grow some nice catnip :-) I would imagine that, if the catnip is fresher, it will actually be more potent. Will it be potent enough? I guess I will have to review that when I actually have a fresh supply.

All in all, making tea out of it has my preference, since it's just a lot easier to handle a big dose. I like to smoke, don't get me wrong, but smoking away 25 grams of catnip on one evening is too much - even for the most experienced smoker.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 62164
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 11, 2011	Views: 24,587
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Catnip (68) : Various (28), General (1)