Blight12 said:
Strangely I have known about its availability here as Mandrax for ever but the local propaganda machine makes it out to be total crap for the "lower class", big surprise, so I never bothered to investigate further.
That's strange, in the US when it was around it was pretty much considered a soft drug. But I get the impression that in South Africa it's reputation is not unlike PCP's is in the US, that it's a dangerous ghetto drug. Maybe because it's smoked, often adulterated, impure, and inconsistently doses.
Kokaino said:
So do not mix this drug with ANY other CNS depressant. Not even a Valium!
I heard when real Quaalude was around a party staple was a six pack and a couple ludes. Although I agree that mixing shit with a street drug from which the OP has no experience with is a bad idea.
sekio said:
The reason you don't see any info on methaqualone here is because it was discontinued in Europe and US/Canada in the early 80's due to problems with abuse and dependance.
Maybe I'm being cynical, but I think it was about money. Methaqualone wasn't more toxic or addictive than a lot of drugs, shit the much more toxic Seconal's still CII.I think it was other factors for it's banning.
1. It went generic
2. The insurance costs got high due to a large number of robberies.
3. The government shut down the stress clinic that prescribed them, so less sales.
4. The market was flooded with convincing bootlegged ludes. Very close counterfeits of Lemmon 714 actually appeared before Lemmon even started making their brand. Someone may have leaked the formula for the inactives and may have even stole a stamp for the press.
5. Other hypnotics/sedatives were released at the time, Xanax, Halcion, and Rohypnol. Lemmon was their competition. Really I don't think Halcion or Rohypnol are much safer.
xxxyyy said:
but be careful, its lethality is up there with pentobarbital and other barbiturates.
Actually even though it's as potent as Seconal or Nembutal it's only half as toxic as the least toxic barb phenobarbital, with a lethal dose with no tolerance of 10 grams vs 5 grams for pheno and 2 grams for seco/pentobarbital. AFAIK it doesn't have barbs fucked up tolerance where the lethal doses only rises to twice as much and the effective dose levels off at 1.5 grams. Also doesn't cause much respiratory depression. An OD usually kills by seizures, and very high doses can cause bleeding. Also i think I read it's physically not as addicting as barbs, closer to benzos(still would suck). The big killer with ludes wasn't ODs, it was car accidents("People on ludes should not drive!")
Bigfanofthemdrugs said:
so it's nothing like benzos? strange, i've heard that it's even less recreational than something like seroquel.
I doubt it's like Seroquel, which not fun at all. From what I heard it's up there with cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin. They wouldn't make it a CII narcotic then CI for nothing if it was even like benzos.
There is not any country that still prescribes methaqualone AFAIK. Switzerland under Toquilone and Indonesia under Renova(I think) were the last countries to have it. Think France might have also had the similar drug mecloqualone but not anymore. Mandrax was 250mg of methaqualone with 25mg of diphenhydramine. The bootlegged Mandrax is mostly made in India, where it's also abused, and China, though not so much anymore in China. Sometimes it's stamped with an MX to copy the original mandrax, or with a swastika. Not because it's made by skinheads, but because it's a holy symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism.
I'd be careful and use it sparingly, it sometimes has very little methaqualone or sometimes more than legit pills. Sometimes they cut it with benzos or antihistamines. Also a lot of it is very impure, with some very toxic byproducts like toluidine. The unreacted toluidine can make you really sick
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/methylan.html . This might be why MX has a bad rep, it's not the methaqualone, it's the impurities. I think that's why methaqualone and PCP aren't more popular, the impurities are very toxic. At least with other drugs they just give a dirty feeling that some grow to like.
I've read old articles from about when the Quaalude epidemic died down. Apparently most of the "boots" or counterfeits were at first made from legit pharm grade methaqualone or mecloqualone powder diverted from legitimate pharm companies. Then the 6 factories that made methaqualone agreed to stop making it. Some tried to make it themselves but didn't purify it right. This caused the pills to have a bad smell, brown color, were weaker, and got them sick. So the major cartels just put in dihydrocodeine or diazepam. Stupid thing is they put in 300mg of diazepam at first and killed a bunch of people. Later the lude mimics were dropped down to 40mg.
The price shot up from very cheap to really expensive, the quality was often poor and they were mostly fakes. I mean who'd pay the same price as an OC or XTC for something that's probably just valium? Especially when you had other good downer like Doriden, Seconal, Rohypnol, and GHB(legal).
Still I'm surprised it's a cheap ghetto drug sold in India and Sub-Sahara Africa when it could sell for way more in North America or Europe. That is if they'd clean it up.
It you're willing to take the risk, please write a trip report.
