Two Personal Experiences with 2-CB
What you are now reading is a report on our personal experiences with
the chemical 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, or more simply 2-CB,
together with this brief introduction, gathered from the scientific
literature and personally from psychedelic experimenters.
2-CB (also referred to in the literature as MFT and alpha-desMe DOB, and
among some users as bromo-mescaline) was first described by Alexander T.
Shulgin (the world expert on structure-activity relationships) and
Michael F. Carter in their paper "Centrally Active Phenethylamines"
[Psychopharmacology Communications, 1(1), 93-98, 1975].
Shulgin and Carter forwarded 2-CB as a potential agent for use in
psychotherapy and psychological research. Unlike some of the other
psychoactive drugs, 2-CB is not a hallucinogen and does not interfere
with communication skills.
Here is a diagram of mescaline next to 2-CB:
CH O OCH
3 \____ ____/ 3
// \\ // \\
// \\ // \\
CH O-// \\-CH CH NH Br-// \\-CH CH NH
3 \ / 2 2 2 \ / 2 2 2
\ ____ / \ ____ /
\____/ \____/
CH O/ CH O/
3 3
Mescaline 2-CB
--------- ----
2-CB is the two-carbon homolog of 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine
(PBR or 4-BR). PBR is an isopropylamine compound and 2-CB is a
phenethylamine.
From the subjects of the study, it was determined that the threshold
oral dose was 4 mg, the effective dose was 8 to 10 mg., and the duration
of action was 6 to 8 hours.
We now quote from Shulgin and Carter's "Results and Discussion" section:
"Rather than showing signs of stimulation, the subject becomes
passive and relaxed and is aware of an integration of sensory
perception with emotional state (although not experiencing the
lassitude characteristic of psilocybin), there are no effects that
can be called hallucinogenic. At these dose levels there is a
considerable euphoria with an increased body awareness and increased
receptiveness of visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile sensation.
The integration of sensory and emotional states induces in most
subjects a feeling of security and an ability to cope with incidents
and experiences that might have led, with drugs such as LSD, to a
state of anxiety and possible panic. [...] At the end of the
experience [...] the subject appears to be alert, relaxed, and
content."
Surprisingly little has been written about 2-CB since, however, there is
a rich oral tradition amongst the members of the underground culture.
Psychedelic experimenters classify 2-CB as a phenethylamine and an
entactogen. Contraindications include psychoactive drug use within
4-5 days and concurrent use of MAO inhibitors. We personally don't
know the basis for these warnings -- we guess that recent use of
psychedelics will produce a tolerance to 2-CB, and that there is a
potential health hazard in combining MAO inhibitors with 2-CB. MDMA
can be taken immediately before 2-CB without diluting it's effects.
(MDMA enthusiasts: a 1000 mg. of calcium and/or magnesium orotate
an hour or so beforehand should take care of jaw-clenching and
eye-tracking side-effects usually associated with MDMA.)
The recommended oral dose of 2-CB is 15 to 25 mg (approximately twenty
times the potency of mescaline). The recommended nasal dose is 10 mg.,
but this tends to have two side effects: (1) a burning feeling in the
nose, which may be eased with a little water, and (2) a rapid psychedelic
onset. A typical oral dose is 20 mg. with one hour to onset, four hours
to plateau, and six hours to baseline. Like with other psychedelics,
the effects may be diminished if your body is digesting food.
Effects include: an increased sense of touch, mild ego dissolution,
mild visual effects, insights into personal makeup, with lucidity and
communication skills retained. Side-effects are an altered sense of
time and space perception.
One needs only to find and read the next two papers on 2-CB to see what
is happening in the U.S. with respect to scientific research.
There is a paper called "4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine:
Identification of a New Street Drug" by Ragan, Hite, Samuels, and
Garey [Journal of Analytical Toxicology, Vol. 9, 91-93, 1985] which
mis-characterizes 2-CB based on information obtained by the police.
This paper offers nothing to help us here, but provides the
identification information to put you away for a long time should
the police find you with this therapeutic substance.
The next paper is called "A Preliminary Investigation of the
Psychoactive Agent 4-Bromo-2,5-Dimethoxyphenethylamine: A Potential
Drug of Abuse" by Glennon, Titeler, and Lyon [Pharmacology, Biochemistry
& Behavior, Vol. 30, 597-601, 1988] and is representative of the way the
DEA and realities of funding affect scientific papers. This is your
basic rat experiment paper, but they conclude with the sentence, "The
present results are not, however, inconsistent with the possibility that
alpha-desMe DOB [2-CB] may be psychoactive agent with abuse potential",
and of course everything after the colon in the title is unsupported as
well. The paper also perpetuates the errors of the previous 1985 paper.
The conclusion that 2-CB is abusable derives from their results on
receptor binding, and on the fact that rats trained to discriminate
STP (DOM) from saline will generalize this learning to 2-CB (when
they don't just forget about lever pressing entirely.)
--------
Epilogue: Only hours before posting this, we found a paper today called
"2-CB: A Novel Psychotropic Substance" by Jovita Laboratories, Inc. in
Volume Two of "Psychedelic Monographs and Essays" (Summer 1987). Two
things they point out are that as of their writing (Autumn, 1986) 2-CB
was not illegal, but we now know that it was specifically placed in
Schedule I by the DEA since then. They also point out that the full
dose for an average adult is recognized to be 15-20 mg. They conclude
with: "However, 2CB is one of the very few compounds that can be
synthesized with astonishing simplicity."
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Hello, my name is Jose and this is my 2-CB trip report. I've never had
a psychedelic drug, so this was my first. Perhaps some brief background
information is in order.
I tried marijuana many, many moons ago when I was a freshman in college
and nearly blacked-out, and of course I've had many experiences with
low-grade alcohol intoxication. A little over a year ago I decided to
experiment with marijuana and found it to be quite pleasant, but smoking
even through a water pipe does not thrill me. I've experimented quite a
bit with non-drug induced methods of change, but will not go into them
here. I was given the opportunity to try hashish not too long ago, by
my friend David, and absolutely loved the effects on my consciousness.
I have wanted to try psilocybin-containing mushrooms for some time now
-- maybe some time this year in the right setting.
Before embarking into the unknown with 2-CB, I had a full physical and
psychiatric evaluation, just to be safe. Given the `okay' from the docs
and armed with some book knowledge ("The Varieties of Psychedelic
Experience" by Masters and Houston, "In the Magic Land of Peyote" by
Fernando Benitez, "The Psychedelic Experience" by Leary, Metzner, and
Alpert, "The Teachings of don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda, plus some
others), I was waiting for the `right time'.
When I met up with an urban shaman named Fuegio, I knew it was the
`right time' and my soft plans of taking it this summer went to the
wind. I took him to a good Indian restaurant the day before, and
we ate our last meal before fasting. I knew that Fuegio might be
including some others in our party, but for the most part, we didn't
talk about it.
It was now the day of no return and Fuegio and I talked about where we
might go. We prepared our day packs, and Fuegio made some impromptu
telephone calls, and then I made one call -- it would only be Fuegio,
myself, and my friend David.
We snatched David from his house and then went on a roadtrip to a
place I had suggested in the mountains.
After we got there, Fuegio told me to pour the tiny amount (20 mg.)
of 2-CB out just under my tongue and to hold it there. Fuegio had done
the same and we all talked about what David should do, since he was
still digesting food from lunch. He would wait, perhaps sniffing the
2-CB. The 2-CB tasted slightly metallic as it mixed with my saliva,
and I drank some water to wash it down; it tasted sort of like a zipper
I used to suck on when I was in 2nd grade.
We followed a trail up into the mountains and we all began to perspire
under the midday sun. As we walked, the only thing that I could feel
was the sense that I was somehow taller, just a little but more than
usual. From looking down at my feet and the trail, I'd say three
inches taller, to be exact.
I noticed my stomach grumble a little, but I thought this was more
from not eating than from the 2-CB.
As we walked, we saw wonderful plants and insects all over the place,
and many lizards out sunning themselves.
We talked about consensus reality as we headed further into the
mountains. I was wondering when I would really start to feel it.
We stopped for some water and Feugio told me to close my eyes.
I did, and although it was bright out, I could see delicate
recursive-like patterns that were red in color. It was happening!
With a little more concentration and a few more seconds with
my eyes closed, the patterns or structures were much clearer --
they were undulating very slightly and looked sort of like dense
root growth, but highly geometric. When I opened my eyes I felt
a little bit more centered and slightly euphoric. In addition
to being even taller, I was also lighter.
We kept hiking and talked about the current drug hysteria and fascism
in this country. Feugio, who had been treating us to witty but true
comments along our hike, remarked that there was not a drug problem
in the U.S., that there were plenty of drugs!
Feugio called to the crows when they'd come by.
David sat down to take his 2-CB, but Fuegio stopped him, since we were
still not in a good out-of-the-way place, and if he took it nasally, the
psychedelic onset would be very fast (approximately 10 minutes), and he
would not want to move.
We talked and hiked further. David went for the under-the-tongue method.
I was definitely feeling quite good -- relaxed, content, definitely more
centered and `in-touch' with myself. Holding my hands out before me and
turning them held a peculiar fascination. With my fingers separated and
hands symmetrically in front of me, I could feel the structures that
were more pronounced with my eyes closed. Smelling plants and flowers
was much more enriching than usual. Warmth and a feeling of lightness
filled my body. I could also feel a definite smile plastered across my
face.
We came upon a subterranean bee colony, which the bees were entering
through a small hole in the baked mud and rock. We went up to it and
bees swarmed all around us. The sounds were wonderful. We also saw
a large hawk make an impressive dive way off in the distance. Fuegio
made particular note of this.
Eventually we found a spot next to a cliff and sat down in the dried
grass. I was definitely there, and when I closed my eyes the patterns
were much more vivid than before and much more striking. There were
definite feelings of being in communion with everything around us. I
described how I felt to David and Feugio as feeling like a mesh cloth
had been draped over and through me, sort of bell shaped, and that it
petered out into the ground a few feet from me.
So this is the psychedelic experience? I started to say that it was
very subtle and not at all like I envisioned it to be -- very intense
and the like -- but before I could finish explaining, I contradicted
myself and said that it was.
Still a moment later, I flipped again, thinking that 2-CB was much
more like a vitamin than my impression of LSD (having never taken
it myself) -- this was a very subtle change in consciousness, not
totally unfamiliar.
Fuegio mentioned a `looping' phenomenon and I was definitely feeling
that. He said something like -- if you have a problem, you'll either
work through it or it will pass, but if it passes you'll find yourself
coming back to later, even long after the the drug experience.
I definitely worked my way through some things! And it was intensely
wonderful to be having conversations when feeling this way. That's
the one thing that I didn't like about marijuana, that it messed so
much with my ability to communicate verbally to others.
Fuegio, David, and I talked a lot about all sorts of things and,
indeed, there was no ordinary sense of time. I talked about my rather
limited drug experiences and Fuegio was pleasantly shocked to discover
that this was my first psychedelic. After talking more, but just after
that, I felt a great bond with Fuegio as we both discovered that we
shared something remarkable in common. (I'm sorry I can't explicate
here, but rest assured that it was truly remarkable!)
We also talked about growing up and our pasts, and it was nice to watch
David's face when he discovered that Fuegio was much, much older than
he thought.
Fuegio and I enjoyed a little hash to synergize our visual perceptions.
(David was still on his way up.)
Eventually we decided to walk back down the trail, but just after we
started, we were treated to something truly extraordinary. Right in
front of our faces, a small blur headed across the trail (towards our
right) followed by a large blur in hot pursuit. Fuegio called out
`red fox' in amazement, which was chasing a small bunny rabbit, but in
a split second they both crossed the trail again (to the left) we all
knew that it was a great bobcat! And then they were gone.
Fuegio was delighted -- that we had been in the presence of such a good
omen.
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I'm David. This was also my first experience with 2-CB.
The air was chill, perfect for a hike. On the short walk
up to the trail, we found a couple standing near the branches
of a small tree with orange fruits hanging from it. They gave
us a few of what the tree had given them. Jose and Fuegio
wanted to wait, and keep their stomaches empty, but I gave in
and bit the soft sweet tart flesh. Delicious, I ran to the
tree and got a few for my pocket.
We continued up to the trail, and then began our ascent.
We occasionally passed other hikers coming down.
The air was a little hazy; you could see distant slopes,
but not clearly. My friends had dosed at the car,
but I waited, thinking I would sniff mine. I wanted
to get to ridge first.
The rocks were peculiar. Fuegio said puddingstone,
and the name seemed to fit. Small smooth rocks of fist size
and smaller embedded in a soft sandstone.
Flora, fauna, and conversation occupied us while we climbed.
It was warmer, and we were working.
I noticed a yawn from Fuegio, and recognized it from my
experiences with mushrooms. He was showing early signs.
When we were near the top, we took a small break and I took
out my capsule of 2-CB. I decided, instead of sniffing it,
to place it under my tongue. It tasted bad, but I expected
worse. I didn't drink my bottle of water until much later.
I wanted as much to absorb through my mouth as possible for
a quicker onset.
We continued our trip up, and I could tell my companions were
feeling different. We discussed hallucinations, and what
constituted one. Fuegio contended that all we see is some
kind of personal construction or hallucination. This led
to a long thread about the subjective nature of reality,
consensus reality, and language. Later I had personal thoughts
about the mechanical nature of the soul, which kept returning
prompted by small things, like a butterfly or lizard.
. . .
Most of my psychedelic experience has been with mushrooms
(I grew them for 5 years before a move killed the culture).
For quickest onset, and least gastric distress, I usually
made tea from my mushrooms. With mushrooms I would yawn,
my eyes tear, stomach tighten, and I would feel I needed to
pee, during the early part of the trip. Also with mushrooms,
I usually needed to take a much larger dose than usual to
have full effect (with remarkable exceptions.)
20 mg of 2-CB sublingualy (two hours after a large meal) gave
me no more "body" effects than a slightly tight stomach.
The mental effect was very smooth. No anxiety or difficulty
speaking (although sometimes the limitations of language
showed themselves). Whether it was my refractory nature,
my full stomach, or just the vagaries of psychedelics,
I felt a larger dose was called for. When I've underdosed
on mushrooms, though, I have a kind of antsy feeling, like
I'm floating without my feet on the ground, but failed to
reach escape velocity. There was none of this discomfort
with 2-CB.
I felt very comfortable with Jose and Fuegio. There was
usually some conversation, with one or another of us drifting
into reverie.
I visited the tree again as we left, and left a coin as a small
token of my thanks. I will plant the seed of the orange fruit.
I quite enjoyed the frame of mind I reached with 2-CB, and
will seek it again.
David
/s