Dan Nestor’s Get High Now book features a section on natural remedies. One such example is the Mediterranean coriander plant, a staple in many Mexican and Indian recipes. A tasty herb, Coriandrum sativum can be bought fresh or dried, or even alive in the pot.
Nestor claims it can also get you high.
He describes it as an ‘Iranian folk remedy,’ and lists symptoms as including ‘wild hallucinations, laughter and eventually pitbull-like lurching.’
I got a whole pot from Tesco and transferred it to a baggie, then looked for an ideal evening to try it out. Thursday 9th April looked like the right time. I was planning to join the GetSocial group to do Point Blank, as I understand it a laser-based shooting range on Deansgate, but between the time the event was announced and the actual date, Point Blank themselves went insolvent. All 3 venues across the UK closed. In light of this, GetSocial recalibrated and put on a regular bar drink meetup in Be At One next door. My car was in for a service, so it seemed like an ideal time to use public transport and see whether coriander has the effect that Nestor claims it does.
I got the bus in, arriving at 6 on an empty stomach. Be at One graciously had a 2-4-1 cocktail deal, so I got 2 Cuban Zombies (full of rum and burning half passionfruit) and started sipping. I went to the bathroom with a glass of water from the bar and shovelled down a whole pot’s worth of coriander leaf. Gross. I stayed and chatted to people, waiting for the effect to kick in, but the only difference I felt was from the sudden influx of alcohol. I dished out a few blog cards and tried to rope a few people into my own meetups, but generally it was a routine affair. I certainly didn’t get the high that Nestor had promised me. I had work the next day and obviously a bus to catch, but even so, I was way too drunk by 8pm and walked out.
So yeah, none of the aforementioned symptoms – maybe a chicken-like meandering back up to Piccadilly Gardens, but certainly no lurching.
