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Interesting but Mild
Blue Lotus
Citation:   PsyChemist. "Interesting but Mild: An Experience with Blue Lotus (exp78808)". Erowid.org. Aug 26, 2016. erowid.org/exp/78808

 
DOSE:
0.5 g sublingual Lotus/Lily - Nymphaea nouchali var caerulea (extract)
    smoked Lotus/Lily - Nymphaea nouchali var caerulea (extract)
BODY WEIGHT: 160 lb
Two weeks before 420 I stopped smoking weed with the idea of actually getting high on National Stoner Day. To pass the time, I looked into legal alternatives extensively. Blue Lotus stuck out, though, so I bought a 10g bag of 25x extract powder; it was fairly fine medium-light brown sweet smelling stuff, tasting slightly like some strange sweet tea when under the tongue.

T+ 0:00
I open the package, which had a sticker on it that said 'Verified Nuciferine Content' (one of the 2 active chemicals), I dropped some under the tongue, enough to make a dry spot. Then I held it there for about 10 minutes or so, actually enjoying the very curious flavor.

T+ 0:15
My early warning system goes off, and in another five minutes I feel slightly lifted and energetic.

T+ 0:30
Not yet satisfied with the effects and confident that there would be more to have, I load a tiny bowl of some Italian herbs (not a euphemism). I cover the top of the bowl with a moderate layer of the powder and put a lighter to it. The powder makes pulling hard, and it crusts over black quickly unless air can get through it. It smokes basically like good resin or nasty hash, and tastes like joint papers. I share it with my roommate M.

T+ 0:40
After the bowl is done, a mild buzz is beginning to flow through my body. Music is playing and it seems somewhat brighter. All I want to do is 'get off the couch and make something happen'
All I want to do is 'get off the couch and make something happen'
(actual quote), so I get up and do the dishes. M takes out the trash and sweeps, and we end up getting some chores done painlessly.

T+ 1:00
After chores, we load another bowl like the first, enjoying the drug's mild suggestions rather than alcohol's stuporous silencing effect or Adderall's brain-train rocket-fuel effect. The buzz is actually quite strong now, and I can tell why the drug is classified as a sedative. Couch lock. I feel extremely talkative and mentally energized even though I'm very relaxed.

T+ 1:45
I walk into our jam room and turn on my guitar amp. Playing music is AMAZING! I'm getting SO into it that I crank it up to ridiculous volume and do cliche 80's hair metal moves in the hallway, without a care! And on top of that my lowered inhibitions allow me to play more interesting and creative ideas, and I end up writing a song.

T+ 2:30
The effects are slowly beginning to wear off. Comedown is very smooth, almost unnoticeable, much like how weed is for me now.

T+ 3:00
Effects are gone, but I still feel in a happy mood.

A separate experience:

T+ 0:00
My girlfriend C, my roommate M, and I are all seated around the couch preparing to smoke two glorious bowls of Jelly Bean doused with Blue Lotus for our half-way smoke break on Apr. 13. About the same size layer of lotus is applied to two sequential bowls of .25 g high-grade mixed-strain cannabis and smoked between the three of us.

T+ 0:20
Other than getting high and getting the giggles, I notice nothing of the lotus until it hits me in the head halfway through bowl number two. I get much more happy and giggly, and I feel another body buzz coming in.

T+ 0:30
All three of us are discussing the new boosting effects of the lotus, as if our highs had all suddenly been cranked up. Southpark was unbearably funny, and after the episode I went to jam again.

T+ 0:45
I'm enjoying myself playing the guitar again, though more pensively than enthusiastically, when C walks into the room. She sits and talks with me non-stop for perhaps twenty minutes, barring my occasional aside, and I actually am interested in what she has to say, though I notice my attention seems to drift all over the place.

T+ 1:30
C and I end our discussion with a keyboard-guitar duet which is very fun, mostly because she's never wanted to before. We play for quite a time until we all get tired and pass out an hour later.

My conclusion for this substance is that it's interesting. It's an ingredient of many legal herbal smokes, and a great booster to weed. It's also a decent aphrodisiac.

Now on the pharmacology and neurochemistry of Blue Lotus:

After the first time C smoked the lotus, I brought up how the active chemicals nuciferine and apomorphine were opiate-family chemicals that work mainly by blocking dopamine receptors (not opioid receptors). The first time she tried the stuff, she had been on Adderall (speed, a powerful dopamine agonist), so the two drugs fought it out in her brain and she got a bad headache and a severe short-term depressive episode. Perhaps too much unused dopamine floated away from synapses to places it isn't supposed to go?

The second time, aware of this interaction, she tried it and liked it a lot. She kept telling me how it made her feel 'more like herself', and I put this together with my observed ADD symptoms ('train-of-thought at the turntable', easy achievement and disruption of 'flow', rapid conversation shifting) to assemble that a high dose of lotus essentially gives the user temporary ADD along with a body stone and relaxation.

Possible use as an anti-psychotic, perhaps? It's obviously a potent dopamine antagonist with no noticeable side effects.

Exp Year: 2009ExpID: 78808
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Aug 26, 2016Views: 6,791
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Lotus/Lily - Nymphaea nouchali var caerulea (105) : Combinations (3), Second Hand Report (42), First Times (2), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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