Preface #
Drugs. What image does this word conjure in your mind? What picture is painted for you by newspapers and broadcasters?
It is a word that has become so stigmatised and misappropriated that, in our society, rational discourse is almost impossible, and factual information is buried. The result, in terms of human misery, is everywhere to be seen.
This is the context against which I wrote this book.
My own introduction to drugs was not uncommon. I was always curious, but not enough to fully engage. I smoked cannabis a couple of times at university, and tripped on LSD once, in my twenties.
I then strayed from the script, albeit temporarily. I stumbled upon Adam Gottlieb’s tiny book, Legal Highs, which introduced the world of botanicals. From this, foolishly, I sampled a couple of… nutmegs. These induced an experience which was so horrendous that I didn’t touch another psychoactive for many years.
It was back exclusively to booze; the socially accepted but deadly intoxicant. Like many of us trapped in a certain culture, I drank too much. This wasn’t habitual, or daily. It was just that when I did drink, I tended to binge somewhat. I could probably claim that I was perfectly normal.
It was a generation or so later that my curiosity and interest in the subject of this book was re-awakened by exposure to a series of loosely related topics.
The first of these was quantum physics. I had grasped that my original perception of life was flawed when I first encountered Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Quantum physics, however, with it’s demonstrations of connectedness (entanglement) and the need for an observer to collapse potential into matter (double-slit experiment), obliterated all preconceptions, and at the same time appeared to place consciousness at the centre of the mandala.
On the back of this, courtesy of YouTube, I discovered the charismatic Terence McKenna. Some of his theories on the nature of reality were staggering, but plausible. Psychedelics were the name of the game; expanding consciousness and facilitating a sojourn from our limited static perspective. Of particular interest were his frequent references to shamanic rituals, embracing strange vision inducing cocktails. The most common of these brews was the famed ayahuasca, which almost came with a guarantee to open the door to the indescribable.
I was intrigued; so intrigued that I researched this field intensively, and in the fullness of time determined that I must travel to Peru to engage in the ritual. With the research for this expedition came my first home-based experiments, always cautious, always scientific, always with a clear objective.
Ayahuasca not only provided an unimaginably beautiful and beneficial experience, but bestowed the confidence to continue the quest for knowledge. The journey, at least as far as psychedelics were concerned, was underway.
It wasn’t too long before I became interested in widening my field of exploration to at least embrace dissociatives, oneirogens and nootropics. In terms of safety I understood that in a comparative sense psychedelics tended to have an excellent profile, but it was increasingly obvious that other classes of drugs could also be navigated sanely and sensibly, if a methodical and scientific approach was used. I therefore proceeded, with what I considered to be due care.
I was soon to encounter a disturbing tendency. Whilst I perused forums and message boards I occasionally noticed that regular contributors had disappeared. Sometimes word would get back that they had made a mistake, and had died. This was horrific, more so as I understood that most of the deaths were completely avoidable.
People were dying, and they were dying because of ignorance. They were dying because they didn’t know how to use their drug, because they were experimenting with insane doses, buying from dodgy sources and not testing, underestimating onset and double dosing, and taking crazy drug combinations.
They were dying because unremitting propaganda against psychoactives was denying them vital safety information. They were dying because legislators and the media were censoring the science, and ruthlessly pushing an ideological agenda instead. They were dying because the first casualty of war is truth, and the war on drugs is no different.
Prohibition kills people, education saves lives, yet the education provided broadly amounted to ‘take drugs and you will die’. This lie was so obvious that no-one took it seriously.
However, here, before me, was my own modus operandi, and a database of my own experiences. It included precisely the sort of risk mitigation and personal safety information that would surely be of value to others, and which might actually save some of those lives. This juxtaposition was so stark that the embryo of this book was quickly envisioned.
So my course was set. I would expand my initial mission, and embrace all commonly available chemicals and botanicals. I would document the journey directly and accurately, emphasizing and explaining the safety aspects throughout. I would seek to document the hidden truths, spanning the entire drugscape.
The undertaking was daunting, and at times I experienced anger and frustration at the blindness of a society which made it necessary. I overcame this and a myriad of other issues by reminding myself that if it saved a single life it would all be worth it.
After the best part of ten years, the book was finally published. I now hope on hope that the information within it reaches those who need it most.
Acknowledgements #
Thanks and gratitude are due to the staff and members at Dread for creating this conversion, specifically: Thotbot, Syntactic_Raven, Shakybeats and Paris.
Dedication #
Dedicated to the victims of the war on drugs.
PDF Download #
You can download the free PDF version from this webpage.
Disclaimer #
Neither the author nor the publisher accepts any legal responsibility or liability for any inaccuracies, errors or omissions. The information and text within is supplied without warranty, and is not presented as a service or as advice in any capacity. The contents merely reflect the author’s experiences and personal observations.