Question from the States

Hi, I live in the Midwest, USA, but I am curious about a news article that came up last month when I was over at pillreports.com . There was a link about the latest ecstacy news which led to the article about a drug seisure at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The incident was on or around Dec 15. ANYWAY, the article was talking about "38,000 Erimin 5 pills" that were found. What is Erimin 5?? [I DON"T WANT ANY--JUST CURIOUS AS TO WHAT THE HECK IT IS] The article says it is like Ecstasy, as it allows the user to hallucinate upto 10 hours. Of course the news media makes it impossible to know what's what, because I personally, have not hallucinated on ecstasy. Where do they get these ideas?? So if you know what they are I'd like to know, just to satisfy my curiousity. Thanks so much!!

a quick google search found this:

Boy With Psychotropic Pills Arrested, The Star, 5 September 1996
Penang (Malaysia) - Police arrested a teenage boy with a number of psychotropic pills on him following a tip-off. He had just consumed one of the pills. A check revealed that the pills, known as Erimin 5, are a nimetazepam-based hallucinogen which produces a high, though not as potent as heroin or ganja.
<a href="http://www.prn.usm.my/headline/poison/sep96.html" target="_blank">http://www.prn.usm.my/headline/poison/sep96.html

Click to expand...

hmmm. i look for more when i get to work.

It seems to be a very localised drug. Can't find any references to it anywhere except Asia, specifically Singapore/Malayasia and Japan.
Here's a data sheet on it.
oh hang on, found a reference in a UN page on Italian drug law. seems to be in the same (legal) class as valium et al.

Thanks, I didn't have any luck with the couple of searches I did.

Nimetazepam is structurally similar to Nitrazepam, or mogadon. The difference is a methyl group on R1 of the diazepam ring. The article though seems to imply Erimin 5 is a derivative of Nimetazepam. The formal substitution numbering system states position 5 is where the substituted benzene ring joins the 1,4 diazepam ring (see JB’s data page link above). Changes could be easily made around this carbon. Biscuit any ideas?
The Merck Index (6465) classes Nimetazepam as an anticonvulsant/muscle relaxant (skeletal).
I couldn’t find much either JB. This document classifies nimetazepam as a medium acting benzo (valium is long acting), metabolized via reduction. The metabolic pathway had not been determined.
http://medicine.ucsd.edu/TukeyLab/P450/Benzo.pdf
This one doesn’t say much either except that Erimin is one of the abused depressants in Singapore.
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/dag/scc/drugweb/DrugDic/depressants.html
I’ll keep looking, if it’s active I’ll be surprised if it can’t be found somewhere.

erimin 5 is an anti-depressant that is legal in singapore.
well that's what everyone says. don't know for sure though.
can anyone verify this for me ?

anyways... erimin 5 costs about 50% less than 'e' here in malaysia. but you need to take more than 1 pill to feel the effects.

personally i've only done erimin 5 a couple of times. i just felt like i was floating around. kind off. makes you very talkative too. a friend of mine took 8 pills with about 30 minute intervals between each and could remember a thing he did over the night.

cheers.

Sounds interesting. Are they a prescription drug or are they just bought over the counter if legal? I am assuming that if it is an anti-depressant it would a prescription drug? Can not find any information for it here in Australia.

well .. i dont think erimin 5's are prescription drugs here in malaysia..
but chances are if a dealer has no weed or no 'e' he'll definately have erimin 5's.

we call em 'happy 5' here. suprisingly.. alot of non weed smokers and non poppers take them.

A friend of mine who lives in maylasia has taken these often. They are aparently one of the benzo's that are predominatly used for recreational purposes only. He may post on the topic once to arives back in malaysia (currently here in Australia).
A friend of his has posted photo's on www.castitas.com have a look around there and you should find some pictures and subjective affects.

stollen from the above link: