Party Vibe

In most of Europe the authorities are more worried about young people trying to obtain the solvents than drugs; more so if youngsters who already take street drugs are trying stuff like this. to be fair this attitude makes sense; there are a number of ways this experiment can go badly wrong.

Coffee grinders (at least for the last 30 years) usually have a spark quencher circuit and the components must comply with the safety rules of the country the device is used in. But it is not put there for safety reasons; it was added because folk the world over often listened to analogue radio whilst making coffee in the morning; and the grinder would make a noise on the radio. So clever people in JP and NL (who drink as much coffee as they do tea and also listen to radios a lot) worked together to make all 3 devices, for both 100-120V and 230V countries.

The spark quencher is subjected to strong voltage every day, and often gives up before the motor. If it goes short circuit, the grinder will usually trip at least one circuit breaker and the user will not just have no coffee but the kitchen and perhaps the whole house (depending on whether its a RCD / GFCI type and where it is located) off supply ; and the grinder will very soon end up in the trash.

if the spark quencher goes open, the grinder will still work, but will be a source of radio interference (and sparks!) but few young people listen to analogue radio in the mornings, and even less to low and medium frequencies where the interference would be noticed.

Naptha can be just about anything; its exact definition varies across the world. it usually means something purer than petrol/gasoline (that you could put in a car) and not as heavy (i.e as many carbon atoms in it) as paraffin/kerosene or diesel. In the UK it was called benzine but that means petrol in other European nations, and is confused with benzene which is redlisted across Europe simply because its known to be nasty stuff anyway (flammable, toxic and a carcinogen) even if not used as a precursor for controlled substances.

British “white spirit” used to be mostly naptha but can now contain more paraffin, more so since European rules against benzene as well as some others about selling/storing more than a certain quantity of stuff that can easily go up on fire. A 1 litre bottle of it I recently purchased (for cleaning some paint brushes after painting a radiator) has a label with a fairly detailed explanation of what should be in it, that it was mostly C9-C12 hydrocarbons that could have anything up to 15% aromatics (compounds based on benzene, and still potentially carcinogenic but not quite as bad). There were also strong warnings not to drink it, to call the health service 24 hour number if you think anyone has, and a full deck of diamond signs – flammable, dead fish/dead tree, and the new scary one of the stick man slowly being eaten away from inside.

I suspect it would be “too heavy” anyway and the lighter stuff (C5-C7 onwards) is what is required, but as C6 is often benzene this is restricted in Europe. Isopropyl alcohol is more easily available but requires age ID for sale. Young people buying large quantities of either will arouse suspicion as the cops think they might be wanting it as an accelerant to set fires, or to add to more expensive stuff like alcohol for drinking or petrol for vehicles. The first will make people very ill, and the second causes polllution or the vehicle toeventually stall and maybe cause a big crash.

Even if you can get all of the stuff required, what do you think could happen if someone carries out the steps in the wrong order, with the open jar of a low flashpoint solvent mixture venting fumes to the air and and the grinders spark quench circuit is kaput?

Hence why the authorities in Europe aren’t exactly rushing to control all the new psychoactive substances until they’ve got evidence that these are putting a lot of users in the hospital (the better ones are at least what they say they are on the label, produced using better quality solvents and lab procedures than what folk would get for their kitchen).

In Europe and Asia, all sorts of unpleasant stuff (including naptha and benzene) once ended up in both coffee and gin, more so when the import/processing of was restricted for moral or political reasons without accepting that there would remain a demand for those things.

Today both are readily available, produced to accepted standards, the only restrictions being individuals own moral / faith group beliefs and practical safety issues (caffeine in high doses is more toxic than a similar amount of amfetamine-type stimulants, and starting fights and/or using wheeled vehicles when drunk is a crime pretty much everywhere in the world).

@RaD 563586 wrote:

In the US Morning Glory seeds are easy to buy in bulk, I just bought 4500 for $5.99 USD on amazon. Naphtha is available at local hardware stores for about $9 USD, no ID. 91% Rubbing alcohol is $2.99 USD, no ID.

The seeds aren’t restricted in most (or any) European countries, although it is easier to obtain LSD (and all sorts else) and even send it through the post if its small personal use quantities and not going across borders; you’d get in less trouble for that even if you were caught than if you accidentally set a fire trying to process the seeds.

In any case naptha here is definitely the heavy stuff (I took a photo of the other bottle which also mentions it is heavy); One thing that Europe does allow benzene to be used for is in petrol alongside the other lighter solvents in naptha (it makes the engine produce stronger power without going on fire before the spark plug or whatever is now used today has activated). Petrol can be sold for a lot more than small quantities of solvents; Europe also uses taxes and other methods such as road layouts and provision of public transport to encourage people not to use motor cars for short journeys; Americans are often shocked by the price of petrol and the amount of rules regarding motoring (especially for young/new drivers) in Europe.

Benzene (also known as Benzol(e)) was used for this purpose before – it was a by product from processing coal at the gas works and there was once a National Benzole company which proudly advertised that there was more benzole in their fuel and it was British rather than the “foreign” petrol.

This was until scientists found out that long term exposure to benzene caused cancer. At the same time, removing it meant the petrol didn’t work well with some engines so other stuff was put in the petrol; which turned out to be a lead compound; even worse for you than benzene! by the time I was in primary (elementary) school, the National Benzole company had been rebranded to National, they kept quiet about benzole (and lead) and as a marketing stunt would give away Smurfs to any cars which contained children. Many of these Smurfs contained as much lead in the paint as the petrol, and had been banished from the rest of Europe and even China as unsafe for their kids, even in the 1970s!

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