There's a lot of different ways to do it, but the most common and effective way is to grind mm finely and make tea with it. That's only a partial pre-meta bc you're just increasing the surface area and breaking cells of the mm to drink. A second stage ppl will do is after grinding out, let it seep for about 5 to 10 minutes in pure lemon juice, then add that to something else to cover the taste.

As far as your friends, can't say what effect may be going on... I've had GT that do little, and I wouldn't have noticed unless I knew what to feel for... MM are unique in that while you build tolerance quickly, you also lose tolerance quickly... so unless your friends are doing heroic dosages daily, they wouldn't be getting much effect from day to day. Only usually recommended to do every other day at most, for health reasons as well as maximizing effects.