GOODBYE ECSTASY, HELLO 5-MEO-DMT

New Designer Drugs Are Just a Click Away

Psychedelics Legal In US But Banned In UK Are Openly Available On The Internet

British recreational drug users are turning to a new generation of designer
class A drugs from the United States as demand for ecstasy plummets, the
Guardian has established.

The majority of these new drugs are powerful synthetic psychedelics from
the same chemical families as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline. They are
too new to have enticing street names; instead their lengthy chemical names
are shortened to abbreviations such as 2C-I, 4-HO-DiPT, and 5-Meo-DMT.
Unlike ecstasy, methamphetamine or other synthetic recreational drugs, the
new compounds are not made in illicit factories or backroom kitchen
laboratories. Instead, "research chemicals", as they are euphemistically
known, are synthesised by commercial labs, often based in the US, which
openly sell their products on the internet.

The rapid growth in the transatlantic online trade in such chemicals has
been fuelled by international differences over legality. While Britain has
outlawed all of these drugs - under an amendment to the Misuse Of Drugs Act
in February 2002 - they remain legal in most other countries, including the
majority of EU member states. Even in the US, despite some of the most
draconian anti-drug laws in the world, the bulk of research chemicals are
legal to manufacture, sell, possess and consume.

With ecstasy dropping in price and popularity, users and dealers in this
country are looking further afield to obtain new highs. A recent Home
Office survey found that ecstasy use had dropped 21% in the last year. The
street price had also dropped to an all time low of UKP2-UKP3 a pill.

But while most research chemicals are too psychedelically powerful to make
it as club drugs, one, 2C-I, is rapidly gaining popularity in this country
as a dance drug, thanks to some similarities in effect to MDMA, the main
ingredient of ecstasy. More than 125 pills of the drug were seized by
police last year, including 65 at the Glastonbury festival, and some London
dealers are offering it for UKP10 a tablet.

British police acknowledge that the internet drugs trade is a growing
problem. "It is one of our key priorities," a spokeswoman for the National
Hi-Tech Crime Unit, responsible for policing internet crime, told the
Guardian. "Supply of class As is one of the areas we are examining."

Most research chemicals come as crystalline white powder. They can be
swallowed, snorted, smoked or injected. Some users prefer to administer
them via enema.

Psychedelic stimulants such as 2C-I and 2-CT-2 induce visual
hallucinations, energy surges, and euphoria. The most powerful is
5-Meo-DMT, doses of which are smaller than a grain of salt. When smoked,
its effects are nearly instantaneous, propelling the user into an alternate
reality, described as like "being shot out of the nozzle of an atomic
cannon". The experience lasts 10 minutes.

Competitive

Online drug trading is becoming an increasingly competitive and
sophisticated industry. Last month, the Guardian revealed that at least
five British websites were selling cannabis online.

The leading research chemical sites compete openly to offer the purest
product, the best customer service, the fastest deliveries and the lowest
prices. Sophisticated e-commerce technology, electronic payment systems and
next day courier services guarantee swift, effortless "one-click"
transactions. Most sites offer between five and 15 different drugs, with
prices ranging from $95 to $350 (about UKP50-UKP185) a gram excluding
delivery. The maximum order is 5g. Customers must be over 21.

Credit cards and international money orders are accepted. Drugs like 2C-I
can be shipped, via UPS or Fedex, worldwide. Next day delivery is often
guaranteed. Most will ship to the UK and other EU states with one caveat:
"All purchasers are responsible for compliance with any applicable city,
county, state, federal or national regulations related to the purchase,
possession and use of any and/or all product," reads the disclaimer on one
site.

"It's very easy to get them if you know where to go and you're prepared to
take the risk," said Charlie, 34, a photographer and graphic designer from
south London. He calls himself a regular customer of a research chemicals
company based in New York.

Every three months he buys a selection using his credit card. It usually
takes three days to arrive via UPS Express. Most recently he made a
repeat-order for 1g of 2,5-dimethyoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine (or 2-CT-2
for short), a class A psychedelic similar in effect to mescaline. It costs
$175 excluding delivery.

"It's pure. You know exactly what you're getting," he said.

Research chemicals are advertised online as 99% lab pure, but experts warn
that that does not mean they are safe. Compared with similar drugs like LSD
and magic mushrooms, which have undergone decades of informal human
experimentation with relatively few direct fatalities, research chemicals
are unknowns. Few human or animal toxicity studies have been carried out.

Even their proponents are at pains to point out the unpredictability and
danger involved in reckless experimentation. "It is not reasonable to
assume that these chemicals are in any way 'safe' to use recreationally,"
states the FAQ at erowid.org, the internet's biggest underground drug
resource. "When you take a research chemical, you are stepping out into the
unknown, and you could be the unfortunate person to discover a new drug's
lethal dose."

Safety is a big issue among avid users of research chemicals. Detailed
"trip reports" and harm reduction tips are shared through an extensive
network of websites and bulletin boards. First time users are expected to
read up on their drug of choice and start with small amounts.

Nevertheless, with active doses running to hundredths or even thousandths
of a gram, overdoses triggering unexpected reactions can be a very real
threat, even with electronic scales sensitive to these weights.

In October 2000, Jake Duroy, 20, from Oklahoma, snorted 35mg of a research
psychedelic called 2-CT-7 he had ordered from the web. He was an
experienced user but this was a massive amount of the drug to take nasally,
which can greatly amplify the effect. He quickly became agitated and
violent and two hours later died of a heart attack.

In April the following year, a 17-year-old died after snorting a similar
amount of the same drug. A year later in July 2002, 2-CT-7 was
emergency-scheduled by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. In their statement,
they cited information from trip reports on the internet. After these
tragedies, 2-CT-7 was removed from the online marketplace and has not
reappeared.

Police Warning

The EU recently recommended that member states ban 2C-I as a matter of
urgency, although they turned up no evidence of large scale manufacture.
The police, however, were quick to sound the alarm. "The chemicals to make
this are available and it can be made pretty much anywhere," a source said.

Most research chemicals were invented by one man, Californian biochemist Dr
Alexander Shulgin, 78. As an expert witness and adviser to the US Drug
Enforcement Agency, he held a licence permitting him to study psychoactive
drugs. Over decades, he created hundreds of new mind-altering compounds and
then tested them on himself and a small coterie of fellow "psychonauts".
The recipes for more than 170 of his materials were published in two
biochemical cookbooks in the 1990s and now form the backbone of the
research chemicals industry.

Despite the risks, Charlie is prepared to order again, although he admits
he gets nervous every time. "I track them via the delivery company's
website and can watch when they pass through customs safely," he said.
"Then I know I can relax."

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STRANGE AND OUTRAGEOUS CHEMICALS

DMT Dimethyltryptamine

Found in minute quantities in certain Amazonian plants and in the human
brain. Smoked, the effects are nearly instantaneous and very strange. "The
closest you'll get to experiencing death bar actually dying" as one user
put it.

Dose 2-60mg

Duration Less than 10 minutes

Legal status Class A

Price UKP100 a gram on the street

5-Meo-DMT Methoxydimethyltryptamine

A more powerful sister compound of DMT, occurring naturally in the venom of
the Bufo alvarius toad but generally smoked in synthesised form. Not
uncommon for those who take large amounts to suffer psychological and
emotional difficulties for weeks afterwards.

Dose 1-20mg (smaller than a grain of salt)

Duration 5-20 minutes

Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet

Price $175 (about UKP90) a gram

2C-I (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine)

Most likely candidate for the coveted title "the next ecstasy".

Powerful psychedelic stimulant described as a cross between MDMA and LSD
but with much gentler side-effects. Already appearing in pill form on the
UK dance scene.

Dose 10-25mg

Duration 5-8 hours

Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet

Price $299 a gram web price; UKP10 a pill on the street

2-CT-2 (2,5-dimethyoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine)

Respected psychedelic, from the same phenethylamine family as MDMA and
mescaline.

Noted for its warmth and "outrageous visuals".

Dose 10-25mg

Duration 5-8 hours

Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet

Price $299 a gram web price; UKP10 a pill on the street