Nutmeg produced my worst ever drug experience, and delivered an early message that ignorance could cost my life. Indeed, following this episode I didn’t dabble with another psychoactive botanical for over 20 years.
I was 21 when I made a cup of nutmeg tea, scraping the nut into hot water and drinking it. For a variety of reasons I simply believed that this would be okay… it was after all only a kitchen herb. I could hardly have been more wrong.
After drinking my concoction early-evening I went to bed disappointed, assuming that the experiment hadn’t worked. However, in the middle of the night I awoke. My head was spinning; I was in serious pain as I crawled to the toilet with the room swaying and my hands sinking into the wooden floor boards (which seemed like glue as I slowly struggled along). It was a living dysphoric hell, as despite the need, I failed to urinate. I somehow dragged myself back to the bedroom to collapse on the bed.
The morning after, the pain was still overwhelming, particularly the headache, although the hallucinations had thankfully stopped. I was ill for the best part of a week. It was absolutely horrible.
I am not going sugar coat this. Even though it is something I avoid doing with other drugs in the book, I do say it for this one: don’t play with nutmeg — it isn’t recreational and in terms of curiosity it just isn’t worth the risk. Too often I see people posting about it, frequently boasting and telling risqué stories or grossly misrepresenting it.
It’s not just random posters on social media either. I once gave an interview to a UK tabloid in which I stressed again and again that this wasn’t a psychedelic ride or a trip, and that it should be avoided. You can guess what happened. They wrote the subsequent article in a manner guaranteed to attract the naive and foolhardy; using terms like ‘revellers’ and ‘a high’, and without even a passing reference to harm reduction practices or safety protocols. Unfortunately for the mainstream media this is all too common.
Nutmeg is a deliriant, and being delirious is not where you want to be. Medically this is often considered to be a state close to death, and frequently it produces a traumatic and sometimes dangerous experience. It is toxic and it can seriously damage vital organs. It isn’t too far off the mark to consider it to be a poison.
Don’t end up like I did, or worse still, like GG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl3H23g5kT0
