Until I was 27 I avoided all illegal drugs on the theory that they'd be like a random edit to my core self, after which I could no longer trust who I was. Eventually I decided both that there were parts of me so stable they were unlikely to be changed, and that there were other parts for which even random change wouldn't be so bad.
To echo that point... my pure-shroom experiences were generally positive, but one time mixing with MDMA resulted in a very strong experience that by the end involved some paranoia about keeping my thoughts and public utterances separate. That paranoia would occasionally mildly recur the next year or so. That's now many years ago, but I still wonder if crazy street people talking to themselves just mixed too many things, too many times creating permanent confusion.
Somewhat odd to have used OJ as the mixer; vitamin-C is often considered to accelerate the breakdown of psychoactive substances (especially those like MDMA and LSD), so would normally be avoided until you feel you're 'done' and want things to end.
I've always been told it enhances the experience...
Anyway, it doesn't follow that faster breakdown makes the trip end... could be that the very process of breaking down the active substance produces the effects desired, and the vitamin-C acts as a catalyst to "even out" the experience.
You might be confusing the OJ/vitamin C with the properties of grapefruit juice, which is well-established to alter the properties of various liver enzymes, particularly those which typically metabolise psychedelic / hallucinogenic drugs. Wikipedia has a brief blurb about it:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_drugs...
Actually, it does mention orange juice as containing flavonoids which may have some (albeit lesser) effect on drug metabolism.
Yeah. Actually, it looks like there is mention in the literature (Simon Wills Drugs of abuse, 2nd Ed, 2005)[1] of vitamin C in fruit juice, or Ammonium Chloride to acidify urine to promote sequestration and removal of amphetamine metabolites.
I'm not sure if/how that translates to other drugs like Psilocybin, but it does raise some interesting questions.
Do you by any chance have a source regarding the original
"enhances the experience" statement? (for my own curiosity really - I'm not saying that you're wrong or misinformed)
No real source, but googling "vitamin c mushrooms ehance" brings up lots of forum posts etc. In my case, this knowledge is just the sort of folk-wisdom picked up from a misspent youth :). I have heard lots of stuff to explain it, but all of that falls squarely in the "probably pseudoscience" and [citation needed] categories.
Vitamin-C does virtually nothing for the trip. It's all placebo.
Now, if you grind the mushrooms up and let them site in lemon juice for 30+ minutes. That will definitely accelerate the time you reach the peak of the trip. The acids in the lemon juice break down the mushrooms so the stomach can digest them more quickly.
