Kava, in my opinion, isn't worth trying to smoke.. It works slightly, in my opinion from my own personal exploits, but I don't think overall, especially adding it to any kind of blend, is worthwhile.
While I don't have a lot of experiencing mixing DMT into a smoking blend yet, I do however have a lot of experience with smoking blends in general.. from my own extractions to the legal herbal blends that have been around a year or 2 that actually work (I guess 2 summers ago now was the first time I tried Spice Gold, wow, time flies).. For those that don't know of them, most of them have always had some sort of cannabinoid in them.. I always knew this, as I knew no herb in nature actually reproduces the effects of cannabis so well.. but other people rationalized smoking the stuff to themselves by say "Oh it's legal and all natural" so they didn't have to feel bad, as half of them had 'quit' smoking weed.. It was like they had quit opiates with poppy tea.. I felt sorta bad for them, but they never listened to me when I said "You're likely never going to make your own blend as strong as these, they aren't all natural"..
Despite this, a lot of them tried to make their own blends.. They all thought "Oh well I can replicate spice gold with stuff online for cheaper".. Most never did, but in the exploration of other herbs they at least gained valuable insight into what the OTHER herbs can do. No one herb is a substitute for cannabis. None of them do the same thing, as none of them are cannabinoids.. Some can produce aspects of the experience however..
So basically what I'm saying is don't expect to accurately reproduce cannabis with other herbs.. That's a vein of thinking that is unnecessary and doesn't allow you to enjoy the herbs you're using for their OWN unique properties.
That being said, some of the best one's I've tried, and I've tried most of them, are:
Pedicularis densiflora (haven't tried other varieties but they're supposed to be good too, like elephant's head and parrot's beak)
Smoking pedicularis is a real treat. If you're going to add one herb to your smoking blend, I would have to suggest pedicularis. The physical relaxation you're looking for is inherent in the smoke of Indian Warrior.. It feels almost like smoking an herbal benzodiazapine... sometimes even moreso than kava can.. It relaxes the mind and body, and the mind component and be a bit sleepy. The 'buds' are colorful greens and purples.. they're beautiful looking and burn leaving a nice sweet flavor and smell.. Definitely one of the best overall herbs when it comes to both real effects and taste/enjoyment during smoking..
Sceletium tortuosum AKA Kanna aka Kougoed.. This one is fun to chew or hold in the lip.. It's also a good smoke. It might be hard to find a good source of shredded kanna. I know BBB's kanna is powdered up mostly. I ordered the pharma kind and the regular kind awhile back. I really love both, but usually smoking it makes the powder harden up and burn slowly.. It then is stuck to your screen and requires some scraping to get it off.. Not fun.. The effect however upon smoking is a lot of fun. It's a lot like using it sublingually but it hits you a lot faster and possibly a bit more intensely.. This is a good one to mix into some other blend, because a lot of people smoke too much and get themselves sick. A mild dose of it is not unlike a tryptamine feeling.. brightening of colors and mood lift plus a bit of a buzz throughout the body and mind are the characteristic attributes of it.. One might wonder if it would potentiate tryptamines or if it would possibly compete for receptors.. It has been said to contain mesembrine, which is said to be an SSRI.. Now, the problem is, there's no peer reviewed study showing that.. just basically one source.. It might not be true.. but until we know for sure, you'd be best not combining it with an MAOI.. Smoking it with just DMT but no MAOI would likely be better.. No one wants to end up with serotonin syndrome if it actually is an SSRI..
Verbascum Thapsus AKA Common Mullein.. This stuff is great as a base for a smoking blend, especially if you're working with extracts.. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I imagine it would soak up DMT quite well.. It's very very fluffy material, and I've heard of people saying that it's actually good for the lungs and throat even when smoking. That is debatable, I'm sure, but it is non-psychoactive and makes a good base for anything you want to put on it.. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point the parsely sandwich smoking method is rebranded the mullein sandwich smoking method.. I actually tried a mullein based blend, a weaker one (caneff 5 star) to do the sandwich method and it worked really well.. Mullein burns just about right for this purpose.
I'm gonna stop the format I've used for the last 3 and just say some things about a few more herbs I have more experience with.. Peppermint can add a nice taste of menthol to a blend.. Hops is a decent smoke but I'm not sure it's worth adding when there's other better things.. Damiana is a good base for a smoking blend as well, but I always think Mullein based blends are less harsh.. Vanilla or Mint extract can be dripped on blends to make them have a different taste.. a few drops, then letting them sit to evaporate the alcohol.. that can add a taste like menthol or vanilla if desired. I like using mint extract.. Verbascum Blattaria I have tried.. This plant was relatively unknown until about 2 years ago when an Edot user posted a topic about it on that board.. He was raving about how it reproduced weed-like effects.. It doesn't really. I tried it as well last year.. I didn't find it the first summer, but the next summer I did. By then he had taken back his opinion on it, saying it was likely a lot of placebo. I however also got some effect from it initially, but by the next day it was no longer there. It was either placebo or it has some sort of rapid tolerance.
I spent a brief time messing with thujone containing plants.. On lycaeum there was a topic about cedarwood oil. A user there was dripping it onto papers and smoking them or a drop or 2 on other herbals. I tried this, and while sometimes it gave an odd effect, I didn't see a lot of worth in it.. Thujones are complicated.. As I remember, there's a few different kinds of thujone, like an alpha, delta, or something like that. Some of them are bad and some are better.. If you want to look into thujone containing plants I'd do more research on that specifically before taking someone's word for it and just throwing in anything.
I tried a tea of sinicuichi and it made my body lock up, like I had run 4 marathons.. I couldn't move, my muscles burned like I worked out for literally several days without stopping and then ran 10 miles.. It was awful.. I can't comment on smoking it because my virgin lungs back then couldn't handle it.. The smoke seemed really harsh back then..
A lot of people like Blue Lotus in smoking blends. I've never had much effect from it, but everyone has a different body chemistry.
Really, I wouldn't take a list of plants from someone and go "Ok cool" and go mix them up. If you honestly want to perfect a blend, you need to try each plant individually and try different ratios of plants you know well.. I think Pedicularis and Kanna are the most worthwhile places to start for actual effects.. Pedicularis actually tastes good. I think a blend of just p.densiflora, a little kanna (shredded if you can find it), mullein and DMT would be quite good to smoke.. Maybe even just pedicularis and DMT.. Mullein would be a good one to hold the DMT when melted though.. I remember someone looked it up and found that under a microscope it has these little trichrome looking things that he thought would allow it to absorb and hold more of cannabinoids than other plants.. I dunno about all that, his reasoning seemed sound, but I do know it's one of the most spongy and fluffy herbs you'll find.
If I think of anything else I'll post it, but for now hopefully that helps someone out. I think a lot of plants given on lists of "cannabis substitutes" are nothing like cannabis.. many times they're not even smokeable.. like no offense to the list poster, but that one list in this topic had Kratom on it. Kratom isn't worthwhile smoking.. it doesn't taste good either.. There's no reason to ever smoke kratom. Other plants on these lists are plants that were fake ingredients on the cannabinoid blends like the spice-alikes (Spice Gold was the name of a blend, I know that can be confusing on a DMT forum) and people assume they're like weed because they were the fake list of ingredients for these weed feeling blends.. Baybean is one such plant. I had never once seen it discussed in the herbal community until Spice Gold listed it as an ingredient.. The only thing in Spice Gold was Mullein and a cannabinoid of some sort.. That's what I told people all along, but they still kept trying to waste time reproducing cannabinoid effects with other plants.. none of them ended up with anything they'd smoke regularly.. That's why I'm saying don't go down that road.. Nothing else is going to be cannabis but cannabinoid blends or cannabis.. These plants aren't going to make you feel just like on weed.. They can however have their own effects and tastes and once you realize not to chase a weed substitute it becomes quite enjoyable seeing what each plant has to offer on it's own.
Oh, and here is a picture of Mullein.. Common Mullein that is, not Moth Mullein..
I show you that specifically because it grows EVERYWHERE here.. Anywhere there is exposed dirt and water you'll find it growing where I live.. I'm in the northeast US.. If you find it, people use the leaves at the basal rosette (it's like the leaves at the bottom of the plant where the stalk comes out) and they somehow rub it and dry it.. I've only had mullein in cannabinoid blends with a mullein base, but the plant grows everywhere and I've considered picking some.. Right now, if it grows near you, it's probably starting to grow upwards.. All winter long, those leaves at the bottom are still on the ground.. If they grow near you, look near some railroad tracks.. or maybe on hillsides where the dirt isn't manicured much by people.. I dunno how much I'd trust it though, could end up with contaminants, but for those of you who trust wild-growing phalaris or other plants, I dont see the harm in it. A tea of it can soothe the throat too.. it's a good herbal expectorant..
Well that's all for now.. Just wanted to make people aware this potentially-better-than-parsley-for-DMT-sandwiching plant is growing everywhere.. it's also really really cheap.. If you're considering extracting anything for a blend, mullein would likely be the best base.. Kanna and pedicularis extracted and evapped onto some mullein might be a nice smoke in it's own right.
