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 �2-�3 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 �10 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 �50-�185) 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."


* * *

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 �100 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 �90) 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; �10 a pill on the street

***

2C-T-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; �10 a pill on the street

Prohibition doesn't work. Governments should grab the bulls by the horn and do something useful with the recreational users rather than prosecute.

If you can find a way to sell that to the mass populace, let me know. Most people I talk to about it have a kind of religious belief (based on fear and a close minded view towards to new ideas) that drugs are bad and they don't really want to hear about the comparisons with what they're particularly into, namely booze.

Experience is the key to understanding. Anyone, old lady or M.P., should be kidnapped and fed magic mushrooms til they "understand". Only then should they be allowed to hold a view. It winds me up that we have people who spout nonsense in the house of commons and parliament without ever having knowledge of the things they speak about. Its often the case that the politicians are using out of date arguements and even false propaganda that the governments have spread. Any government body that has ever lied in its history has no hold on my actions.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that we are finding more and more plants that have psychoactive properties and our legal systems can't legislate fast enough or enforce the law. All the while the recreational users tred into unknown territory with only a forum post or two to guide them. This is extremely hazardous and a situation that won't improve anytime soon.

Prohibition is for noobs.

I've been thinking for a while now of dowsing the local parliament house with an aerosol enabled LSD....

Prohibition is for getting elected.

This is all very fun to talk about, but both preventing one from altering his own consciousness, and altering another's consciousness without his permission, are unethical. That is, it's wrong. We must respect the rights of others if we insist on others respecting our rights.

Yes one of the few things holding me back. Wouldn't want to see what a politician does when he/she starts freaking out and has a bad trip cause he/she wasn't expecting it.

Of course its all said in Jest. I would never actually spike anyone or anything, even with alcohol. Our western society could benefit from some kind of family based ritual involving local fungi. At least then some people would be reinvigorated after the lengthy rise to adulthood. It seems most people arrive at 18 with a total disregard for anything religious and sneer at society in general. I'm sure theres another way...

If there's another way, it has been eluding me for 37 years. A hard problem.

trojan_libido,

perhaps its a good thing that there is disregard for things religious. I am not trying to make this a religious debate, so I wont. Lets focus on the benefits that fungi can give, which I hope you would agree does not need to be spiritual/religious. I have had beautiful/mind altering/awakening/mental breakthroughs (not spiritual) on various
psychedelics. I think if youre spiritually inclined, then you will have that experience. At the end of the day you guide the substance and make it work for you.

I agree that religion as it stands is a powerful anti-social force, but that doesnt mean that our children should grow up seeing the people around them as a joke. Imagine you live in a home where you and your neighbourhood have to attend church (quite rare these days), and you think the whole thing is pointless. You believe the people you live with have no real beliefs and are just spouting off the doctrines like zombies... what does that do to the cohesive unit called family? What does it do to your own identity? It can't be good on a personal or cultural level.

I come from a faded christian background, church is for births, deaths and marriages only so I never took to the Bible.

Lets all take up Islam and unite the world, then see who the extremists target... oh wait I forgot there'd be splintered factions from the main religion that would qualify them as "infidels".

There is no doubt that one of the benefits of fungi is to open up blocked pathways in the brain, allow you to see "you" from another perspective. I've not met one single person who has had the experience without feeling completely renewed the next morning. The air has never been fresher. Of course thats never going to win over anyone, but the experience is worth more than any quantitive measure you want to lay on it. Creativity is boosted incredibly, but to harness you have to have a goal and not get distracted. This takes discipline because its difficult to control the mind when it has the power and misdirection of a firehose.

I do not advocate taking psychedelics habitually. They are best saved for a ritualistic setting, and nothing is more suitable than the first break of spring. This combines all we have ever acknowledged as sacred, whether religious or selfishly, into a hyper aware state of renewal.

People should realise that the only evil in the world is our own fears, and this is rampant in prohibition. Racism, fear of death, fear of success, jealousy, greed, fear of loss, fear of insanity - they all have the same origin within our culture. When these psychedelic states can be reached without the use of sacramentals, why do we fear them so much? Our whole culture has been guided by the words of oracles, messiahs and visions of angels.

Why do we hold back so much? Fear... mr and mrs Smith who are terrified of the "youth" of today. They are the ones who rally in to purge the ideas from our minds, scared of change and terrified that a majority of the population will lose their minds and turn to cannabilism and incest. Its a ridiculously exaggerated situation. What percentage of serial killers and nut jobs have had the reason for their insanity linked to psychedelics? I have no answer but I bet it is a very very small percent. Life creates monsters in the variation mixer.

Lets talk what you can do legally and in the extreme:
Sky diving (thrill seeking)
Ultimate Fighting (ego stroking)
Botox treatment and cosmetic surgery (vanity)
Gourge on Mc'Ds (greed/sloth)
Drink and smoke yourself to oblivion (greed)
Promiscuous behaviour and BDSM (self harm/risk, "deviant" sexual behaviour)

How can anyone look at that list and not see the problems in the prohibition of things that grow naturally? Being told what you can and can't do with your own mind? We need to understand our psychology in a much better way, and prohibition creates the problems. Without understanding of our minds we will never be able to steer this "cultural" worldwide ship in a meaningful way.

Don't let fear of the unknown become a prison for other peoples rights. Our homes and minds are our last refuge, and I'll be damned if I'll let them take that from me.

I would be very interested to see how the goverment classify substances in the light of the recent news highlighting drug classifications. Alcohol and tobacco are more harmful and addictive than cannabis and ecstacy, this was the findings from a goverment released last july yet the goverment dont seem to be changing the law even though the proof is in front of them. I feel that the goverment is worried that if ecstacy get to be seen as acceptable and so more people experiment then they will unstable in thier powers as people will experience drugs and realise that there are other alternatives to the way they rule the land and how everything should be. Most people i have met have found smoking a joint or experiencing ecstacy found a positive experience and wider look at the world, and themselves. Im not saying drug taking will create world peace just that it produces more open minded people, the opposite to what the goverment want us be.

Here is an investigation of UK law carried out recently:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c...h/1031/1031.pdf

I urge anyone who has any strong opinion on these matters to read it, then think hard about why the governments choose not to act upon the information.

The guy above is just repeating whats been said in the post above, in a summarised form, fire and forget style /pewpew

Lucid, this guy is a spammer. Check-out his signature. Jusnt don't buy anything from it, though!

I really like this idea, trojan. That at a certain age our children pass through some kind of ritual, that may or may not include entheogens, marking their passage into adulthood, that gives them a deep respect for mind-altering substances, that gives them some spiritual guidance and focus on the life ahead of them. It could be something similar to what native americans used to do, ala a large ceremony involving a bonfire, a feast, the child spending a specified period of time alone in a sweatlodge or in a hole on a hilltop somewhere, time away from their freaking tvs and computer games, etc. etc.

"...any culture is a kind of hallucination, a kind of self limiting group assumption about reality and we all are adaptive in living in one or several cultures. What psychedelics do is they address a deeper level of human neurological organization; they reveal the brain and it's function, unconfined by cultural norms and expectations and this can be exulting, exhilarating, dizzying, terrifying, depending on the personality and the circumstance.

The tension between so called straight culture and psychedelic culture is tension over values. Psychedelics challenge the assumptions of any cultural and political system and that makes them dangerous to every cultural and political system so if there is anything a Marxist dictatorship, a high tech industrial democracy or a theocracy, they can all get together on one thing, which is psychedelic drugs are a knife poised at the heart of community values. This is just simply nonsense and then all the reasons brought forth are in a sense, a red herring.

The psychedelics are among the safest substances known for human ingestion considering the depth of their impact on human mental functioning, the fact that you pick yourself up 6-8 hours later and go on about your business with an expanded point of view is quite remarkable.

People have a right to think and explore their own minds. This is as intimate a part of their being as their sexuality and any culture which mitigates that is clearly afraid of a full, fair and open dialogue about what reality is and what real human values ought to be..."