How to have a nutmeg trip
by A. Rehak
I was talking to my friend on the phone the other night, and we got on the topic of drugs. She's kind of a virgin when it comes to drugs, and was blown away by how I tripped on nutmeg.
A nutmeg trip is not a good trip, but it works. It's also cheap and, as far as I know, it's legal (yes, it is, we checked - Eds.) As a teenager, I'd read the Malcolm X autobiography (spokesman for the black civil rights movement in America in the 60s - Eds.) and he mentions getting nutmeg and using it to trip. He discovered this because he couldn't get weed in prison and he needed *SOMETHING* to fuck him up.
I asked an older hippie kid I knew if tripping on nutmeg was possible. He didn't know, but he was friendly with a local hippie/biker type who knew every high you could possibly have. We went and asked him about it, and this is what he told us...
How do I prepare the nutmeg for tripping?
First you have to buy fresh, whole nutmeg. It cannot be the ground-up stuff! Fresh and whole, the fresher the better. Now get either a coffee grinder or a cheese grater and shave down enough nutmeg for tripping.
The general rule is 1.5 grams of nutmegs for each 10 lbs. of your body weight. The way it was described
to me was this:
5 ground nutmegs = one 8-hour trip(at least). You can take more, if you're willing to face the consequences -- we'll get to those in a bit -- but it doesn't make the trip stronger, just longer. Also, taking too much will lead to riding in back of an ambulance.
You'll probably have to get rid of that cheese grater/coffee grinder too, since it will reek of nutmeg forever. You should have enough to fill at least 2 tablespoons when you're done.
Take the 5 ground nutmegs (or more, if you're so inclined) and pour it into an empty glass. Get some whole milk and pour about 4 inches of it into the glass, then mix it up. I've seen this done with water, but I needed something to kill the taste. Even if you truly adore nutmeg, the strength of this will make you gag.Now swallow the whole thing in one big gulp.
TA-DA!
Now sit around and wait between 4-6 hours to come up, depending on your constitution.
What are nutmeg trips like?
Nutmeg trips are kind of odd. They take forever to kick in, then they do and you think "is that it?" Until a few hours later, when you hear yourself saying "Oh. My. God."
It opens up with a kind of floaty feeling, then after an hour it turns into a strong weed high. If you've smoked week, imagine the most stoned you've ever been in your life. Now imagine feeling that way for 8-12 hours straight. There's mild color effects, too - flashes and trails. If you doze off while tripping, you'll have very vivid waking dreams. Also, I've read online that if you have a toke off a spliff about halfway into the trip, you get a tremendous weed rush. Each hit feels like you'd smoked an entire joint, say the reports. I haven't confirmed this, however -- try at your own risk. This is not something you should try if you were going to school, work, or anywhere in public that day. When it kicks in, you simply won't function right.
The nutmeg comedown - worse than 'Trainspotting'
That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Now here's the 'Trainspotting' bit... Once you come down your body decides it's had enough nutmeg and the bad stuff begins.
It involves a lot of nausea and some vomiting. Personally I never threw up afterward, but I did have very bad nausea for a while, along with a throbbing two day hangover. I was also tired and a bit achy.
The active ingredient in nutmeg, myristicin, is a delirient, meaning (so it makes you delirious!). However, a myristicin-derivative is a strong irritant called myristical oil, found in mace (you know, that stuff that gets sprayed in people's eyes in riots - Eds.) Nutmeg users often have wicked sinus headache on coming down, as their eyes and ears have effectively been maced. Probably the cause of my two day 'hangover. Finally, myristicin can cause serious damage to your liver, just like overdosing on aspirin/paracetamol.
It may seem off-key to write about tripping on nutmeg if I don't recommend anyone doing it. I don't want anyone hearing about this from a mate at some party then trying it while drunk and ending up in A&E. If you're an intelligent adult with some imagination, you're curious about altering your consciousness to some degree. The safest way to do that is by getting the right information.
Last up: If and when you do anything taboo (and nutmeg-tripping might be at the lower end of the scale), try and let peeps know about your experiences; The more information we have, the better off we all are.
