Dope-o-scope

This week's dope-o-scope is going to talk about the other "amphetamine based psychedelics" besides STP, which was talked about last week. These include mescaline, MDA, and TMA which we hear about on the street and more bizarre drugs like MMDA and TMA-2, which are not found on the street.

Why are these drugs called amphetamine based? Because their chemical structure is similar to amphetamine and norepinephrine, a chemical that is naturally occurring in the body and is used to transmit signals in the nervous system. Often the "A" in these drugs is amphetamines, so MDA is methylene-dioxyamphetamine. These drugs do not just have the affects that normal amphetamines have, they are more psychedelic than is regular speed, and also generally they have less speed feelings.

A phrase that has been used to describe the affects of these norepinephrine similar psychedelics is "entertaining", as opposed to "profound" for the psychedelics similar to LSD. They have perhaps a little more color and light in the case of Mescaline, less heavy mind thoughts. Castanada, in the Teachings of Don Juan, talks of an adventure with mescalito, where he played with a dog who became the mysterious Mescalito.

MDA has very different head effects. It is almost a non-psychedelic psychedelic, in that it has little visual change. It acts almost as a psychic energizer, where things feel more. It has heavy warmth feelings with it, often called empathy feelings, to people, to objects, etc. It has a very much here and now feeling to it. It may be the ideal drug to see something like Fantasia on, as it doesn't create new things, but the things that are there are very heavy. It is also good in the country, where trees are really trees and nature's beauty is accented. MDA has a few less than desirable side-effects, however. One is the speed effect of gritting teeth. Another reported, but not confirmed is that it can mess up menstrual cycles; that is, it may throw off a sister's cycle even if she was very regular before. This change in rhythm is not a permanent thing however.

MDA has another strange feature in that at normal doses (65-130mg) it's effects can be pretty much turned off. This seems to be the reason that there are very few bad trips on real MDA. This may also relate to the less wild effects that the drug produces also. A hidden plus here is that when you decide you want to go to sleep, even though it feels like your mind is still very active, it usually can be done.

TMA is much closer to mescaline in its effects. Its dosage range is lower than mescaline for the equivalent effects however. For a 150 Ib. person, a good dose of mescaline would be 500 mg (1/2 gram) while that for TMA would be in the vicinity of 200 mg. TMA-2 is stronger, needing only 10-20 mg. However, I don't know the difference chemically or the effect difference between the two.

MMDA is one of the most bizarre psychedelics. A.T. Shulgin who I mentioned last week reported that with MMDA some people can turn the trip off and then turn it back on again. But again I don 't know the, qualities of the trip that could be turned off or the dose.

One more point that should be raised about these drugs is that while they are similar structurally to amphetamine, they are not synthesized from amphetamine. They have their own starter compounds, and the synthesis of any of these is not a simple process, especially as the feds put more and more restrictions on some of the compounds needed in the process of making these various compounds. For this reason there are a lot of bogus drugs, often just combinations of such things as acid, PCP, and speed being sold as MDA, mescaline, and TMA, the amphetamine based psychedelics. Know your dealer!