Substance info: 5-MeO-AMT

5-MeO-AMT is a long-acting tryptamine active at very low doses. It is generally available in either powder, tablet, or liquid form. Partially because of its low dosage and partially because of name confusion with the less-potent AMT, reports of accidental overly strong doses are fairly common. There are a handful of hospitalization reports and an unconfirmed death associated with 5-MeO-AMT. It is generally considered less pleasant, less fun, and more dangerous than AMT.

Dose

There is very little data about appropriate dosages for 5-MeO-AMT. Based on TiHKAL commentaries and a small number of experience reports normal oral doses appear to be in the range of 2-6 mg.

Price

150-200 per gram (March 2004), sold at parties and clubs for $5-20 USD for a single 3-4mg dose, averaging around $10.

Law

5-MeO-AMT is not specifically scheduled in the United States meaning it is not technically illegal to possess. It is possible that sales or possession could be prosecuted under the Analog Act, although we are unaware of any such cases. To the best of our knowledge, 5-MeO-AMT is not currently scheduled in any other country.

History

5-MeO-AMT's chemistry was first published in an article by Shulgin and Nichols in 1978, titled Characterization of three new psychotomimetics. The next publication we know of to mention it is Alexander Shulgin's book TiHKAL published in 1997 and the first instance we have heard of it being available on the underground market was unconfirmed reports that it was sold in fall of 1999 as pressed tablets.

Effects

Positive

Increased energy
Improved mood heading into euphoria at higher doses
Increased sociability, gregariousness
Increased giggling and laughing
Increased sense of creative thinking
Increased pleasure from sense of touch
Intensification in sexual / erotic experiences for some users

Neutral

Light headedness
Brightening of colors
Visuals including motion, waves, breathing walls, etc (usually at doses over 4-5mg)
Increased attention on details
Auditory hallucinations / sound distortions (usually at higher doses)

Negative

Headache
Body fatigue
Stress and extreme fatigue from long duration of effects.
Nausea, diarrhea
Vomiting at high doses
Difficulty sleeping or resting for 12-24 hours after ingestion.
Paranoia, irritability, anxiety (increasing with dose).
Delusional, aggressive, or dissociated behaviour at very high doses (20+mg)

Onset

Depending on how much and how recently one has eaten food, 5-MeO-AMT takes approximately 30-90 minutes to take effect. On a full stomach, onset can be considerably slower. Most of the unpleasant and dagnerous reports we have received have involved insufflation.

Duration

5-MeO-AMT's primary effects last 6-10 hours for most people at moderate (2-5mg) doses, but can last as long as 12 hours with another 4-6 hours of after effects. At higher doses, the effects can last another 4-8 hours for some people.

Risks

The most common problem reported with 5-MeO-AMT is overdosing as a result of confusing between AMT and 5-MeO-AMT. These are two different substances but many people, including vendors, have confused the two. 5-MeO-AMT is active at considerably lower doses than AMT. A full dose of 5-MeO-AMT is 1-6 mg. A full dose of AMT is 15-50 mg. Taking 15-50 mg of 5-MeO-AMT could result in serious injury or death. We have received reports of hospitalizations and one possible death resulting from this confusion.

Contraindications

Do not take 5-MeO-AMT if you are currently taking an MAOI. MAOIs are most commonly found in the prescription anti-depressants Nardil (phenelzine), Parnate (tranylcypromine), Marplan (isocarboxazid), Eldepryl (l-deprenyl), and Aurorex or Manerix (moclobemide). Ayahuasca also contains MAOIs (harmine and harmaline). 5-MeO-AMT and MAOIs are a potentially dangerous combination. Check with your doctor if you are not sure whether your prescription medication is an MAOI.

Do not operate heavy machinery. Do Not Drive.

If you have a seizure or convulsive disorder or heart problems, you may be at higher risk for health problems when taking 5-MeO-AMT. Diabetics should monitor their blood sugar closely as there have been some reports of problems.

Individuals currently in the midst of emotional or psychological upheaval in their everyday lives should be careful about choosing to use psychedelics such as 5-MeO-AMT as they can trigger even more difficulty.

Individuals with a family history of schizophrenia or early onset mental illness should be extremely careful because psychedelics have been known to trigger latent psychological and mental problems.

Addiction potential

5-MeO-AMT is unlikely to be physically addicting and unlikely to cause psychological dependence. Withdrawal effects following discontinuation have not been reported. We have received no reports of regular, heavy use of 5-MeO-AMT.

The Cyclic Psychedelics

TO THOSE WHO LOOK upon the current drug scene as a final manifestation of the Decline of the West or perhaps as the portal to the Brave New World, a glance at the past may be revealing. Surely, entirely new aspects of group-bedrugged behavior are discernible to- day. Nevertheless, the surprisingly close parallels to earlier episodes of preoccupation with psychochemicals - indeed psychedelics - are worthy of our attention.

During every epoch of discontent, despair, and directionlessness there have been those who, sought the magic of a potion or a prophet that would provide quick answers, easy Utopias, or instant surcease. One such period was 19th century England which Carlyle, Houghton, and Morley all called "The Age of Anxiety." It was a time when some of the brightest people of the land took to mind-expanding drugs. Coleridge wrote, "Laudanum gives me repose, not steep, but you know how divine that repose is, what a spot of enchantment, a green spot of fountains and flowers and trees in the very heart of a waste of sands."

DeQuincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" should be reread to savor the beautiful psychedelic descriptions of a tincture of opium trip. It is 150 years since he wrote: "Happiness might now be bought for a penny ... portable ecstasies might be corked up in a pink bottle, and peace of mind sent down by mail." Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Swinburne, Edgar Allan Poe. and many others spoke of the extract of the Oriental poppy capsule in terms singularly similar to the eulogies of today's LSD advocates.

Two points are worth remembering. First, opium eating was not the source of the creativity of these outstanding people. They were gifted, brilliant writers long before their drug encounter. Then, after the opium honeymoon was over, they turned against the drug and wrote bitterly of it. Coleridge called it "an accursed habit, a wretched vice, a species of madness, a derangement, an utter impotence of the volition." The barbarous neglect of his family and his inability to create during his later years he attributed to laudanum.

Nor was opium the only psychedelic of the day. Laughing gas, even before it came to be used as an anesthetic, had its delighted, "turned on" clientele. Both the newly discovered chloroform and sulfuric ether enjoyed a similar popularity before their more prosaic medical uses were established. At Harvard, ether frolics were popular with the undergraduates, and the good news spread rapidly across land and sea. No less an authority than William James referred to ether as a stimulator of the mystical consciousness in his "Varieties of Religious Experience."

Does that era and the other psychedelic interludes illuminate the current drug scene? Perhaps. They remind us that new psychochemicals or those new to a culture are apt to be overvalued and misused. This is particularly true during periods of heightened stress and frustration. The stories of opium, the anesthetics, and cocaine also seem to indicate that the smartest are not necessarily the wisest, and that their drug explorations and fashions may be far from sensible.

Finally, a scrutiny of the past suggests that the abuse of novel mind-altering drugs tends to be cyclic, with a rise and a fall which is not clearly perceived except from a distance. The proposition that we have experienced periodic surges and declines in drug taking behavior before is no plea for complacency. An active effort to teach the individual and society how to enjoy and endure without euphoriants and escapants is essential. Setting the drug abuse problem into a historical perspective simply avoids-the myth that things were never as bad as now. This myth happens to be prevalent among the drug subculture. It betrays a profound and potentially disastrous ignorance of the history of man.

By Sidney Cohen, MD, 1968