The Trip Report 08/04/2019
Even if you know exactly what you’re taking, drug use is never safe — that said, it’s much safer when you do.
Through the work of organisations such as WEDINOS, The Loop, and SaferParty, we know a little more about the drugs in circulation. The report provided below is a summary of their findings over the last week.* This report is primarily UK-focused and couldn’t possibly cover everything, so if you find something I’ve missed please contact me and we’ll get it updated.
The absence of a product from this list doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be there; you might have something more dangerous than anything listed, but it just hasn’t been reported yet. A vital tool for any drug user is a testkit, which allows you to identify roughly what is actually in your stash. You can find them at https://www.reagent-tests.uk and get additional support from the helpful community at https://www.reddit.com/r/ReagentTesting/ .
Final note: This report does not constitute medical advice. Some harm-reduction tips are offered for those who have already taken the compound, but if in doubt seek medical attention.
Standing Warning: Mislabelled Benzos
Dozens of samples from across the UK have been shown to be mis-sold, primarily a glut of etizolam being presented as diazepam and alprazolam. For the time being, it is advised to mistrust anything that didn’t come from the literal pharmacist because these samples have been pressed into convincing pills, even sold in blister packs, and reagent testing between these substances is very difficult. These “street blues” have been implicated in deaths across the country, and are not to be taken lightly
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Ketamine
Sold as: Adderall
Location: London
Advice: What a bizarre and frankly mean substitution — some poor student is gonna take this for an all-nighter and end up on a very different all-nighter. While the effects of such a substitution are certainly problematic, they should at least be limited in their intensity by the dose. We don’t know the dose, but it would be very unlikely to be more than 50–60mg in a pill that size without the binder failing and the whole pill crumbling to nothing. Chopped up and snorted, this would produce a moderately intense ketamine experience but assuming the pill is taken orally, this would barely graze threshold effects.
If one was to chop it up and snort it, the next course of action would be, as soon as you realise something is wrong, to find a friend to assist you and an environment more conducive to the state you’re moving into. The drug itself doesn’t present much direct danger at normal doses, but it is unlikely to be suitable for the scenario you were snorting adderall in, and you may be incapable of moving gracefully to a better one by yourself.
Source: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Sample W009877)
Ketamine info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Ketamine
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Paracetamol
Sold as: Amphetamine
Location: Preston
Advice: This is certainly bad practice from a dealer, but as substitutions go at least it’s not so harmful. As ever, a user would be advised to reagent-test, or at least to take small doses and if they notice little or no effect, then to stop taking it altogether rather than dosing higher to chase the high.
Source: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Sample W010039)
Paracetamol info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Promethazine
Sold as: Xanax
Location: Glasgow
Advice: Damn it, I thought we were past this months ago. Promethazine is an antihistamine, which can generate sedation and drowsiness in high doses but really doesn’t do very much at all to emulate the effects of Xanax beyond that. It is relatively low-risk, though, with many of the same guidelines as Xanax itself when it comes to not hurting yourself. Avoid other sedatives (alcohol included) and try not to hurt yourself.
Source: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Sample W010036)
Promethazine info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promethazine
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: N-ethyl pentedrone
Sold as: N-ethyl hexedrone
Location: Brighton
Advice: These substances are both potent cathinone stimulants and the subjective effects don’t vary too much between, but there is a significant dose differential which could easily be extremely dangerous. The venerable Psychonautwiki lists the common dose for NEP as 15–30mg, whereas the common dose for NEH doesn’t even start until 40mg.
This is all the more serious giving the behaviours these substances are renowned for creating, an intense urge to redose which can lead careless users into mind-shredding binges of days or more. This might pull those who otherwise wouldn’t binge into one, and those who already would into a serious spiral.
Source: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Sample W010063)
N-ethyl pentedrone info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/NEP
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Doxepin
Sold as: Xanax
Location: Sheffield and tested in Zurich
Advice: At Xanax-like doses the risks of this substitution are fairly low, even in users of prescribed antidepressants. However, it is difficult to determine the actual dose contained per bar from a WEDINOS result, which does not provide this kind of quantification, and doses may vary from sample to sample in any case.
Sources: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Sample W010068) and https://bit.ly/2FWgzI9
Doxepin info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxepin
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Caffeine
Sold as: “T5 Fat Burner”
Location: UK (no postcode stated)
Advice: A little bit of history first — a major recent success in the world of “fat-burners” was known as the ECA stack. Ephedrine is a metabolic stimulant along the lines of adrenaline itself, which acts as a psychostimulant and additionally increases the user’s body temperature, increasing their metabolic rate and hence burning more calories. When combined with caffeine this has a synergistic effect, increasing the intensity of the metabolic effect, and adding aspirin is said to increase the duration.
Together, they formed a potent cocktail which, while effective, resulted in its fair share of heart attacks — many of the people who were most drawn to a shortcut to weight-loss didn’t have the most robust cardiovascular system. Ephedrine has since been banned, but many brands are still trading off of consumer ignorance with names based on ECA or EPH or the like, and T5 is among them. Some are enriched with l-theanine or taurine or anything else they could use to bulk out their weight, but caffeine forms the basis of all such products.
Source: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Samples 000038632 and 000038654)
Caffeine info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Caffeine
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: 4F-MDMB-BINACA (synthetic cannabinoid)
Sold as: THC vape liquid
Location: London
Advice: It’s still difficult to offer specific advice for any synthetic cannabinoid since they (this one in particular) are so new and poorly understood. However, general advice still holds true that the only way to stay completely safe is not to participate — if you have any suspicions, err on the side of caution. There’s always other weed.
Source: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples/ (Sample W010080)
4F-MDMB-BINACA Info: Not much has turned up since we first reported on these in February, unfortunately — this is all we’ve got — https://bit.ly/2MHotYQ
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Methamphetamine
Sold as: Amphetamine
Location: Tested in Zurich
Advice: The key difference here is a distinct dose differential between the pair — methamphetamine, in addition to its more-aggressive stimulation, is dosed a good deal lower than amphetamine. This means that taking a normal amphetamine dose with this substitution will place the user in a much more stimulated and less sociable place, so the key risks would revolve around anxiety or aggression. As with any powder, reagent test where possible and take tiny individual doses, at least when starting a new batch.
Source: https://bit.ly/2VtWf7r
Methamphetamine info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Methamphetamine
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: DOM
Sold as: 2C-E
Location: Tested in Innsbruck
Advice: Zoinks, this is another odd one — DOM is one of Alexander Shulgin’s “Magical Half-dozen”, the very best of the hundreds of phenethylamine psychedelics he developed during the 50s and 60s, which was popular in the late 60s under the name STP — Serenity, Tranquility and Peace. It has since fallen out of favour due to its intense body load, but it’s generally considered to be milder than that of 2C-E so that would be unlikely to present much of a concern to the psychonauts partaking in this sample.
While it may sound like kind of a good deal substitution-wise, we must again account for issues of dosing: a normal 2C-E dose of 10–15mg, taken in DOM, would be a full ego-killing, mind-shredding, pants-pooping ride through hyperspace. Sounds like fun, I know, but not if you’re expecting a different and objectively milder experience. Testing is essential for compounds like these, because dose recommendations can vary by orders of magnitude from substance to substance. If you find yourself suspecting that you’ve been victim of this substition then first of all, well done reading all this, and secondly know that this isn’t a physically dangerous experience — so long as you get somewhere safe and comfortable and relax, you might yet have the best trip of your damn life.
Source: https://bit.ly/2CZMXsI
DOM info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/DOM
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: 1P-LSD
Sold as: LSD
Location: Tested in Innsbruck
Advice: This one is a lot less dangerous than it seems (with the limitation that we don’t know exact doses) — 1P-LSD is such a similar experience to OG-LSD that many suspect it acts as a prodrug, converting into normal acid in the brain. We don’t have much information about long-term effects relative to LSD, but based on what we know so far it is unlikely to be radically different.
Source: https://bit.ly/2G5vrVO
1P-LSD info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/1P-LSD
Warning: Mislabelled Substance
Substance: Diphenidine
Sold as: Methoxphenidine
Location: Tested in Innsbruck
Advice: To be honest, this substitution actually seems like a bit of an improvement. Both of these substances are designer dissociatives in the vein of ketamine or PCP, with diphenidine regularly compared to a clearer, more euphoric form of ketamine and MXP compared instead to the slightly more confusing and disorienting effects of DXM. MXP is also dosed a little lower than diphenidine, so a user of this substitution will end up with a lesser effect given an equal dose.
Diphenidine does have a chance to turn suddenly dark at higher doses, however, so if the user redoses to reach the expected high they may find that the experience turns on them somewhat, turning into a deeply dysphoric experience. We can test the difference using Mandelin or Liebermann reagents, with diphenidine testing yellow and orange respectively and MXP turning muddier brown/blacks for both.
Source: https://bit.ly/2UlDab8
Diphenidine info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Diphenidine
Warning: Extremely High Dose — 274mg
Substance: MDMA
Location: Tested in Zurich
Advice: Avoid redosing, stay cool and maintain adequate hydration. Many users will dehydrate through sweat, but sweating also sheds electrolytes and some users have suffered from hyponatremia from drinking only water to replenish themselves. If possible, find a sports drink like Lucozade or, if no other solutions are available, add a pinch of salt to the occasional glass of water.
Source: https://bit.ly/2WQOvg7
MDMA info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/MDMA
Warning: High Dose — 216mg
Substance: MDMA
Location: Tested in Zurich
Advice: Avoid redosing, stay cool and maintain adequate hydration. Many users will dehydrate through sweat, but sweating also sheds electrolytes and some users have suffered from hyponatremia from drinking only water to replenish themselves. If possible, find a sports drink like Lucozade or, if no other solutions are available, add a pinch of salt to the occasional glass of water.:
Source: https://bit.ly/2U5UlbX
MDMA info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/MDMA
Warning: Ludicrously High + Variable Dose — 305mg
Substance: MDMA
Location: Tested in Innsbruck
Advice: It’s worth noting that these pills (even appearing to be from the same manufacturer) are varying between 200 and over 300mg. While those are all fairly strong, a huge variation like that can literally be the difference between life and death.
Avoid redosing, stay cool and maintain adequate hydration. Many users will dehydrate through sweat, but sweating also sheds electrolytes and some users have suffered from hyponatremia from drinking only water to replenish themselves. If possible, find a sports drink like Lucozade or, if no other solutions are available, add a pinch of salt to the occasional glass of water.
Source: https://bit.ly/2UzhMi0
MDMA info: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/MDMA
*Warnings are also released by local police forces, in-house testing at festivals, and by users at https://pillreports.net. These warnings are, however, are unquantified and often unreliable so they are given less weight.
