A No-Effect Smoke

Spearmint

Citation: Evan. "A No-Effect Smoke: An Experience with Spearmint (exp47974)". Erowid.org . Mar 19, 2007. erowid.org/exp/47974

DOSE:

smoked Spearmint (dried)

BODY WEIGHT: 125 lb

Recently, I became interested in altered states of consciousness. I practice meditation and raving (used as a method of getting into a trance and having a lot of fun to boot), but I have never tried a drug before. Well, I have been on Nitrous, but that was at the dentist's office... Basically, I only have experience altered states of consciousness for short amounts of time, and I want to see what it is like to have a lasting effect. The only way that I can really do that is with chemicals. Now, I've never smoked anything before, but since that seems to be one of the most common methods of imbiding chemicals, I decided to find out what it was like with a placebo sort of plant - spearmint.First I gathered up some supplies - crushed spearmint leaves, paper, and strike-anywhere matches, and went outside under the pretense of taking out the garbage. Perhaps I should mention that I had no way of acquiring rolling paper, and the only paper in the house was binder paper and printer paper; I opted for the printer paper. Could this have been a mistake? I'm not sure... So, I tore off a piece of paper, about 3 inches by 2 inches (randomly sized), sprinkled a line of crushed spearmint leaves on it, and rolled it up. I gave the joint a twist at the end to hold it shut.I struck a match on the ground, and held it to the twisted end of the joint until I was sure it was lit. I watched it for a minute, making sure it was really lit and the spearmint leaves were burning. Then, I took my first puff. It was a small, testing kind of puff. And I'll tell you something: the smoke may not have tasted bad, but holy shit! it stung my throat like a hornet in my esophagus! Wow. After coughing quitely for a minute (I didn't want my parents to hear), I decided to give it another go, and actually take a good pull this time. I put it apprehensively to my lips, waited a second, and then gave it a huge drag. Oh. My. God. That stung SO much. It was like a swarm of hornets in my neck, this time. I got it into my lungs, but I couldn't hold it in there. I started coughing a second afterward. I decided right there that I couldn't take any more of that, so I put it out, tore it up so it couldn't be recognized, and then threw it in the trash can outside. The matches followed.Directly after throwing the matches away, I noticed a strange stinging sensation in the back of my head. I got a bit light headed, and now, a half hour later, I have a moderate headache. I still feel light headed, and kind of dizzy. I drank some sparkling cider and some tea, though, so my throat is not sore anymore.I currently am not on any medications, and I'm not prone to headaches or light headedness or dizzyness, so I am pretty sure that this joint was the cause of these symptoms.Overall, I would say that these two puffs of spearmint were pretty lame. I wasn't expecting any psychoactive effects; in fact, that is why I chose spearmint. I wanted to experience smoking in itself, before trying a mind-altering smoke. I think one problem could have been the fact that I used printer paper, so I'll try locating some rolling papers. I'll also try to find out what plants are a smoother smoke - spearmint is a bit too harsh.Always experimenting,Evan