[Buddha-l] Buddhism and psychoactive substances

[Stuart Lachs]

.
Barnaby wrote:
> I am not quite sure what you mean in your discussion of dosage. Oral 
> ingestion of psychoactive substances is not less precise than 
> intramuscular injection. One goes in the arm, and the other goes in your 
> stomach, but the precision of measurement is the same.

I have not followed this thread closely. Back in the flying 1960's DMT 
(dimethyl tryptamine) was a crystal like substance that was smoked from a 
pipe. It was almost instantaneous in its effect. The minute it hit the back 
of the throat, it was felt in the head. It seemed to be absorbed through the 
mucuous membranes of the mouth, top of the throat, and probably the lungs. 
Usually people passed the pipe as they say. A few tokes was all most people 
could take. It was fast and furious, lasting about 15 -30 minutes. DMT did, 
with some people seem to induce "mystical"  type experiences of oneness. 
There was a rumor at the time, people said spread by the government,  that 
it destroyed brain cells.

There was a similar crystal like substance, DET (diethyl tryptamine) around 
at the time that was also instantaneous, but I don't think it was as popular 
as DMT.

With both DMT and DET it would be hard to tell the exact dose taken because 
of the way it was ingested. Was it a deep long "toke" or a short shallow 
one, how long was it held in the lungs, ....?

Many, may be most people who became involved with Buddhism at that time 
(late 1960's), had previously taken psychedelics. Some did not stop after 
becoming involved with Buddhism, inspite of warnings from teachers.

Stuart