DOSE:		oral	Yarrow	(extract)
	9 glasses	oral	Alcohol	(liquid)
	0.3 g	smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

175 lb

The scattered information I found about yarrow piqued my curiosity: not only is it a very useful medicinal herb, but it allegedly changes the inebriety of alcohol... As I somewhat dislike the ordinary inebriety from alcohol, I decided that I had to see for myself.

I sadly cannot come up with neither measurements nor a timeline for my experiment... I prepared my extract by filling a mason jar to the 3/4ths with dried yarrow flowers (bought from an herborist), and I then added vodka to the same height. I kept the jar in my closet for three days, shaking it occasionnaly. When I finally filtered the liquid and transferred it into my flask, I noticed the vodka had become golden and that it had a very strong flowery smell.

I would have liked to experiment first by myself, but Halloween was coming up and I was invited to a party. I chose to try the yarrow preparation there and prepared myself, dressed as a droog from Clockwork Orange, with combat boots, white pants and shirt, suspenders, a hat and a cane, and last but not least my special flask by my side and a joint of good cannabis by my heart.

I met with another droog (a friend of mine, dressed too in Clockwork fashion; let's call him D) and we went to the party, which was at someone's house (and not at a bar, as it was supposed to). When we got there, I took my first swig of yarrow, and found the taste to be unpleasant but far from unbearable; I wished I had some spearmint-flavoured chewing gum, though. Me and D then each bought a beer and sipped it slowly, visiting the place and meeting some people.

After a while, we met another droog, but this one we didn't know! He was very obviously baked, and the conversation we had was quite interesting, as it revolved around Kubrick, Burgess and their work. Our newfound droog handed me the glass of milk he had as part of his costume, saying he did not want it anymore. I simply couldn't resist to the tentation of spiking the milk with my yarrow preparation, making a 'moloko-velocet' of sorts. The milk did nothing to hide the taste, though, and I found myself drinking faster that I would have from my flask to be done with the task of holding a glass earlier.

My glass of milk about 3/4ths empty, it took me a while to realise I was drunk, because yarrow lived up to its reputation: I was indeed feeling only the 'lighter' effects of inebriation, and I was still much less exuberant than my friend D, who probably didn't drink as much plain alcohol as I did. I am slightly bigger than he is, but that alone could not make up the difference, I think. I finished my glass of milk after that, and thought nothing more of it.

At some point later, D and I went outside to smoke the joint. Strangely, only one person, who we knew from a long time, came to smoke with us, and reluctantly at best. And so we smoked the joint, D and I taking many more hits that the other guy, and as we came back inside it hit me full force. It felt as powerful (but not quite the same) as a third-plateau DXM trip, but was much more functional: I didn't feel as if every muscle of my face was twitching, and I still could walk around. I chose to crash on a couch in a quieter room for a while though, as it was extremely pleasant to just let my drunken-yet-lucid thoughts roll images in front of my eyes.

People were starting to mind the weird-guy-nodding-on-and-off I was, so I got up and changed room, but it all gets a bit blurry from that point on. I remember feeling very psychotic, as the physical effects of both alcohol and marijuana were much weaker than usual, making the mental effects seem stronger and sharper; I could spend full minutes staring at people with a Jack Nicholson grin, leaning on a wall, before joining a conversation with random people, including most notably an oddly flask-shaped robot from The Wizard of Oz.

I kept moving around and getting back to the couch, but I remember following my friend D to the dance floor at some point. It was quite funny to watch him dance, very out of it, but I decided after a few minutes that he made enough of a fool of himself, and dragged him back to the room with the couches. There, we held conversations with random people again, but I really started to feel tired; I simply closed my eyes and listened to the conversation, placing a comment here and there, for about half an hour. Then, suddenly, I felt the effects of the marijuana tapering off unusually sharply, and got up and running again.

At about that point, I realised D was not in any state to be around people, and suggested we called it a night and went back to his place. It took maybe half an hour to convince him to get up and look for his coat, and the moment he got up marked the end of any fun. We searched for his belongings for at least an hour, him unable to remember how they looked like and me not knowing but trying my best, my mind seemingly more lucid than ever. I had to drag him around and suggest to him every thought one would normally have by himself in such a situation, and I had to stop him more than once from buying another beer. He ended up puking, and we got kicked out; we then had no choice but to walk back to his place, without coats (I just didn't bring any) in the quite cold night.

D had a very hard time recognizing his neighbourhood, and by chance we met two of his friends on the way back, who directed us to larger streets, from where we could find our way to D's house. I encouraged him all the way by making him sing folk songs with me, and we finally arrived maybe half an hour later. We snuck into his house as quietly as possible (which was, admittedly, not that quietly at all) and went to bed. I am now at home and it is 5:00 P.M. the next day (well, the same day; you get the idea), and I feel quite fine, and I hope D does too, because we're going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight. Oh, how I love the time of Halloween!

In short, I found yarrow to be a very interesting plant, and the experience was well worth it. I have found more interest in the alcohol inebriation thanks to this plant, and I will probably further experiment with it, perhaps in a more 'controlled' context though.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 74746
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 9, 2010	Views: 9,368
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Yarrow (366), Alcohol (61), Cannabis (1) : Combinations (3), Large Group (10+) (19)