The Trip Report: Standing Warnings
Our Standing Warnings section has long been a part of the regular Trip Report, but a steady decline in market quality has led to this list growing far beyond our expectations. Rather than preface every report with a page of the same information, we’ll keep any long-term warnings and things to look out for here, and update it as needed.
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.
MDMA
We are in the early stages of a total collapse of the MDMA market across Europe, and that is reflected in patterns of sales. Mislabelling is absolutely rife already, with anything from eutylone and 4-CMC to caffeine pills being sold in its place.
We’ll still post dose warnings as and when they arise, but from here on we would ask you to simply assume that your MDMA isn’t what it’s meant to be until further notice and, if you aren’t already, start bloody testing it
Synthetic Cannabinoids
In recent months, reports have come thicker and faster of obscure research chemicals being sold as cannabis — whether in vape liquid, plant matter or even hash (we’re not sure why, but this was the one that really shocked us), these substances appear to contain no real cannabis at all.
Consider 4F-MDMB-BINACA. Does that name sound intimidating? Good. It’s a bizarre substance which started to appear a few months ago and about which we still know basically nothing. All we can do is compare it to previous “noids”, which have caused thousands of seizures, heart attacks and deaths. While a wide variety of cannabis products are sensibly enjoyed in grown-up countries, the UK is not among them. Instead, the UK is subject to an unregulated criminal market in which the low price, undetectability and ease of transportation for concoctions like 5F-MDMB-PINACA render them a no-brainer for unscrupulous dealers. Did you notice that that’s a completely different substance to the one mentioned up top, by the way? There are hundreds, all with inscrutable names like that. It’s exhausting.
At this point, there’s very little means to identify synthetic weed yourself, even with reagents. The only advice we can offer is to be extremely careful with a new bag and be ready to send something off to a proper testing service.
Mislabelled Cathinones
Over the last few months, we’ve spotted a steady flow of cathinones starting to appear all over Europe; more often than not, they’re not what they claim to be. Most of them are being sold as mephedrone, which is what we’d expect given that it’s the most popular of the family, but they also seem to be mixing and matching nearly at random among obscure and novel variants.
While their subjective effects are broadly considered to be similar, the required doses can vary hugely from drug to drug and we don’t have the first idea of the long term effects of any modern cathinone, let alone the totally new substances that are popping up. If you’re interested in cathinones, please bear in mind that this may be the case and either adjust your tester doses accordingly or better yet, just leave them be for now.
Ephedrine
In all the time we’ve been tracking these samples, we’ve only ever seen one or two samples of “ephedrine” which actually turned out to contain this elusive stimulant. A relatively mild stim, ephedrine enjoyed a brief period of widespread use as a weight-loss aid before a spate of cardiac deaths led to its removal from shelves. A cottage industry has emerged since, selling products with suspicious names like EPHEDR1NE or 3phedrine which imply the presence of ephedrine, but instead end up being hilariously-overpriced caffeine pills.
We have also seen it turn out to be various other substances without any particular trends, but the vast majority of samples are just caffeine, so this substitution is probably safer than the real thing and this warning primarily consumer advice rather than for your safety.
Whatever your poison, These Unprecedented Times have had a negative effect on the market overall and extra care is advised for anything. Start low, go slow, test if you can and wash your hands.
