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On 17th century "cocaine"

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Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#41

Post by _yb2s »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #30
_yb2s wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caffeine affects people differently… it has very intense effects on me- I would never call it “very very mild”

If I’ve gone a long time without caffeine a single coffee could keep me awake up for two consecutive all nighters. As a regular drinker I still cannot handle more than one cup of coffee per day. It turns out that I have a number of genes that increase the intensity and the duration of effect. I think genes explain most of the differences in experiences with caffeine.

Same, the first time I ever had a cup of coffee I missed two nights sleep.

I have only done 23andme not a WGS like you, but I have at least one liver enzyme SNP that dramatically slows down caffeine metabolism. It took me quite a while to realize that the advice of "no caffeine after 5pm" or whatever needed to be something more like - no more than one cup of coffee before dawn.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#43

Post by lukeinator42 »

JasserInicide wrote: post #8

Anyone here ever actually try coca leaves? Going to guess its effects are somewhere between coffee and cocaine

I brewed tea out of the leaves and also chewed them when hiking in Peru. Stimulant level-wise it felt similar to green tea. Maybe also a slight euphoria when chewing them but it's definitely still way less potent than a coffee (atleast for me).

The only interesting side effect was that both my wife and I experienced tingling feet when combining coca leaves with acetazolamide, the altitude sickness meds we were taking (tingling feet is apparently a side effect of those meds). I wonder if on some level it does have a similar mechanism for altitude sickness?

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#44

Post by dr_dshiv »

Beijinger wrote: post #22

"Analyzing mummified brain tissue from two men who died at the hospital in the seventeenth century, they found evidence of coca use—the earliest ever detected outside of South America. " There is at least one person who disagrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henut_Taui

Cocaine in Egyptian mummies??

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#45

Post by zdragnar »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #33
Clamchop wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TFA literally already says what you said. They're making a reasonable distinction between chewing coca leaves for mild stimulant effect and huffing a fat rail of the pure stuff. It gives the wrong idea to say these 17th century people were doing cocaïne.

"TFA" has got to be the most inscrutable acronym that is common internet parlance, I simply can't guess it could be, and I refuse to look it up

That sounds like a "you" problem, TBH.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#46

Post by double0jimb0 »

lukeinator42 wrote: post #43
JasserInicide wrote: post #8

Anyone here ever actually try coca leaves? Going to guess its effects are somewhere between coffee and cocaine

I brewed tea out of the leaves and also chewed them when hiking in Peru. Stimulant level-wise it felt similar to green tea. Maybe also a slight euphoria when chewing them but it's definitely still way less potent than a coffee (atleast for me). The only interesting side effect was that both my wife and I experienced tingling feet when combining coca leaves with acetazolamide, the altitude sickness meds we were taking…

Tingling feet/toes and hands/fingers are an extremely common side-effect of acetazolamide (diamox).

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#47

Post by [deleted] »

philwelch wrote: post #29
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> were using cocaine. It was a less concentrated form, sure I was going to say this is pedantically correct, but on closer inspection, it's not even that. Cocaine, the chemical, is present in both coca leaves and cocaine, the drug. When people say cocaine--particularly in this context--they're referring to cocaine the drug, not cocaine the chemical. Cocaine the drug and cocaine the chemical are homonyms, and it's inc…

Cocaine, the chemical, is the active drug ingredient in coca leaves the same way caffeine, the chemical, is the active ingredient in coffee and ethanol, the chemical, is the active ingredient in beer. Powder and crack cocaine deliver much higher doses of cocaine than raw coca leaves, much like liquor is more potent than beer, but the chemical is the drug here. It’s not like it’s chemically transformed from one substa…

[deleted]

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#48

Post by kyleee »

md224 wrote: post #42

I wish the US would legalize coca leaves. Our nation's drug laws are so goddamn stupid. Two different Popes drank Vin Mariani! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Mariani

I am disappointed this product is not still available

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#49

Post by doubled112 »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #44
Beijinger wrote: post #22

"Analyzing mummified brain tissue from two men who died at the hospital in the seventeenth century, they found evidence of coca use—the earliest ever detected outside of South America. " There is at least one person who disagrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henut_Taui

Cocaine in Egyptian mummies??

I’m not usually one to split hairs, but that Wikipedia page says “on” and not “in”.

Had they found the cocaine in the mummies, I suspect there would be less reason to suspect contamination after they were dug up.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#50

Post by astura »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #33
Clamchop wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TFA literally already says what you said. They're making a reasonable distinction between chewing coca leaves for mild stimulant effect and huffing a fat rail of the pure stuff. It gives the wrong idea to say these 17th century people were doing cocaïne.

"TFA" has got to be the most inscrutable acronym that is common internet parlance, I simply can't guess it could be, and I refuse to look it up

TFA means "the fucking article."

It's derived from RTFA, "read the fucking article."

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