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On 17th century "cocaine"

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Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#51

Post by yard2010 »

jvanderbot wrote: post #14
JasserInicide wrote: post #8

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

I used them while hiking in Peru. It's better than caffeine, because it comes with a mild euphoria. Nothing crazy, just enough to have energy and not feel like hiking at altitude is work. When I hike with coffee I just feel determined to finish. With Coca it just felt natural to keep walking.

Hiking in altitude is hands down the hardest thing I did in my life. On the first day I almost died of an altitude sickness. On the following days, climbing 5 meters up the mountain felt like climbing the whole mountain twice. After every 10 steps I had to stop for 30-60 seconds and catch my breath.

I drank a lot of coca tea and couldn't feel anything different.

Peru, especially cordillera negra/blanca is the most special place on earth I've ever been too. Everything is magical in a weird way. It's literally breathtaking. I can't really describe it. It feels mystical, even with no drugs involved.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#52

Post by smogcutter »

akira2501 wrote: post #19
pvarangot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to drink coca tea a lot when I lived in Argentina where you get it in the supermarket. It's around on par of nicotine as an appetite suppressant for me, as a stimulant I feel caffeine and mate are better for the "stay awake" but coca tea is better for "zoning in", with less of anxiety driving but it's a more single tasked high where interruptions are harder to deal with than with caffeine. Like if I have a lot…

> single tasked high where interruptions are harder to deal with than with caffeine That comports well with my contemporary and anecdotal understanding of cocaine's most popular effects.

Yes, anyone who’s ever been trapped in a conversation with someone yakked to the gills can tell you all about singleminded focus as an effect of cocaine.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#53

Post by lagniappe »

doubled112 wrote: post #49
dr_dshiv wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One does not simply waste it without tasting it

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#54

Post by cjbgkagh »

_yb2s wrote: post #41
cjbgkagh wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, it would be nice if these general life rules / advice could be written down somewhere with the exceptions listed. I would have appreciated getting a personalized handbook that would have given me a heads up that I was different. Given the price of WGS being low enough to be generally available I think this is something humanity could benefit a lot more from.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#55

Post by rpmisms »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #54
_yb2s wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, it would be nice if these general life rules / advice could be written down somewhere with the exceptions listed. I would have appreciated getting a personalized handbook that would have given me a heads up that I was different. Given the price of WGS being low enough to be generally available I think this is something humanity could benefit a lot more from.

I'm sure someone has a list somewhere. I've seen a few of these from the colonial era, but I want a modern one.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#56

Post by KTibow »

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

I don't think it's that common. This is my first time seeing it, and it's an odd acronym for including "the". I was able to guess at its meaning though.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#57

Post by jowdones »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #26
JasserInicide wrote: post #8

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

Had a hippy friend that discovered coca leaves while hiking in Peru. She packed a bunch to bring back with her to show us her great new discovery for natural energy. Apparently they already knew about these new things called 'coca leaves' at the border because they took them away from her. This is a true story. Friggin hippies man.

She had it easy. A local guy got 3 years in prison with no parole for bringing like 70 coca leaves. The level of retardness of some countries is unbelievable.

https://cluj24.ro/pictor-clujean-condamnat-la-inchisoare-pen...

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#58

Post by justinator »

astura wrote: post #50
brcmthrowaway wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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."

"Fine" article, my fine internet stranger.

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#59

Post by DisgracePlacard »

lolinder wrote: post #17
benbreen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here, I had the same question and looked into it. The author of that comment seems to be onto something because hygrine is indeed found in nightshades as well as in coca. Interesting.

Where are you getting that hygrine is found in nightshades? The authors of the paper specifically say it's only found in Erythroxylum and I'm not finding any references in my own research to that specific chemical being present in nightshades.

I'm no chemist, but according to wikipedia, cuscohygrine is found in belladona plants and it metabolizes into hygrine. So that could be what he's referring to?

Re: On 17th century "cocaine"

#60

Post by JumpCrisscross »

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…

> It’s not like it’s chemically transformed from one substance into another like with fermentation

Banks, the financial institutions, are not transformed into banks, exposed riverbeds, when they're proximate to water. Cocaine, the drug, and cocaine, the chemical, are simply homonyms. Claiming the Inca did cocaine is a dad joke, not serious argument.

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