Roger Kranos
Flower Man
Image Source: Avatar the Last Airbender, Google Search
Intent: A new method of drug delivery for common drugs, making the high much more intense (only for spice)
Development Thread: If needed
Manufacturer: Coruscant Flower and Funeral Company
Model: Cactus Poppers
Affiliation: Coruscant Rotary Club, The Cream and the Crop Casino
Modularity: No
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Cactus seed produced during bolting, whatever spice is added to solute during bolting process of 4 weeks
Description: Need a low calorie snack for the road? Get the munchies and just need that one thing to tie you over? Got an oral fixation and you're trying to give up smoking, but need something to distract you? Well look no further. The CFFC presents to you: The Cactus Popper.
Developed on the back of another project, intent on creating a method of drug shipment and distribution through the Kranos Cactus, a side industry has been created in the formation of a sterilized cactus seed, called the cactus popper. During stressed situations (high heat, extended daylight cycle), the Kranos Cactus retracts its flowering body into the pithe of the plant and begins uptaking solution in order to strengthen the seed coat of the seeds, in preparation for extended period of desiccation. In effect, the introduction of stress implies that the current environment is unsuitable for reproduction and causes the plant to invest in survival of seed in suppressed seed stock, for the future.
The solution can be water or water mixed with water soluble spice (adrenals do not work for this process). When the solution is taken up through the xylem of the plant, the cactus will redirect the fluid into the production of the seed coat around the endosperm. It's during this point that the drug is methylated, much like in the process of DNA methylation in response to stress, phytohormones signal the change in the environment as DNA-methyltransferase catalyzes the production of the seed coat, allowing for the addition of an organic inclusion on the chemical structure of the drug for seed production and viability. This occurs for thousands of seeds, per stressed mature cactus, and can be pulled from the gourd upon death of the cactus. Seeds are relatively small.
Methylation allows numerous advantages to the seed coat. First and foremost, the biological process works to concentrate the spice in a small punch that is capable of crossing phospholipid bilayers. Similar to how mercury is far more potent when in methyl form, methylized drugs have a far more intense potency and effect on the body. However, this comes with a drawback: it takes far longer for the drug to metabolize and remove from the body. As the drug continues to be consumed in methyl form, it will bioaccumulate and offer severe symptoms including organ damage and destruction of the blood brain barrier. This is even more pronounced and potentially fatal for women who intend to become pregnant in the near future. However, all that nasty stuff aside, these things are potent little punches of whatever spice is used in the original solution...and easily portable without being detected.
The seed itself, as well as the drug laced coat, is relatively immune to time based deterioration. The typical life span of viable cactus popper is 20 years before degradation renders the drug ineffective. To consume, the user merely crunches it up and sits back...enjoying a new lease on life. This can also be used on animals, in doses that don't kill the animal, in order to store the methylated drug in the phospholipid bilayers of the cell walls of the animal, causing bioaccumulation over time. While one would be unable to retrieve said drug from tissue through conventional means, one might suspect that it could be received through ingestion of the meat of said animal. Coming soon, to the Cream and the Crop Casino and Entertainment Complex, The Flower and the Chef upper level restaurant (premium access required). We aim to make the world a better place, one fix at a time. ©
Strengths:
[+] Universal Spice Converter: Can be used with all known variants of spice currently available
[+] Portable and Potent: They small, they mighty. They Cactus Poppers ©. (slave results suggest 5 times the power of a dosage of equal size form original drug)
[+] Long lasting: Can take up to 20 years to degrade, when kept dry. Relatively immune to desiccation or reaction to air.
Weaknesses:
[-] Takes time: Maturity for a Kranos Cactus can take anywhere from 6 months to 5 years. After that, it takes 4 weeks to produce these seeds.
[-] No Adrenals: Can't be used on adrenals or any physical enhancement drugs
[-] Expensive and Exclusive: These are new and hot, don't expect to get them for cheap. And they will be exclusive to the CFFC.
[-] Reschedule that drug test: This drug form will linger in the blood and tissue, resulting in positive drug tests long after what would be considered normal.
Primary Source: Kranos Cactus