I know a couple of people in the UK who acquired and tested PCP. They both complained that it causes far too much loco-stimulation (although maybe akathisia is a better term?) & related DRI issues as well as retrograde and anterograde amnesia. There also seems to be a loss of executive function - so people have no judgement, the urge to move, no sense of pain AND potent central stimulation.
I'm sure people can see that it doesn't sound like a good idea, does it? I mean, if you take too much ketamine or methoxetamine, you end up somewhere on the Glasgow Coma scale but PCP has a window below that which seems to be really unfavourable.
I note that like ketamine, the (S) enantiomer is responsible for the NMDA activity, the (R) enantiomer is responsible for DRI activity so it would be possible to resolve the isomers to change the overall character of it's effects. I suppose benocyclidine might estimate the stimulant (DRI) activity of PCP as that demonstrates the steep dose/response curve of the DRI action. I believe some fake Es had benocyclidine as the only active, which shows why have no trust in any street drug.
I believe Larry Levan (DJ at The Paradise Garage), a couple of former NFL stars & and one of those idiots from Jackass all battled PCP dependence.
A 2021 article details how PCP is becoming popular again in DC Baltimore and Philadelphia. I notice that there are multiple commercial ports near these cities and I happen to know that the Chinese will supply piperidine and label it as 1-methyl pyrrolidine. I'm also aware that Mexican law does not control precursors. But either way, the fact that large amounts of piperidine being acquired suggests that precursor control laws in the US are failing.
I'm sure that chemists will recognise that the synthesis is simple and that their are many intermediates that do not appear to be controlled. Given it's potency, if a 'dipped' cigarette sells for $20, it's going to be hugely profitable. After all, a common dose is 5-10mg. There seems to be small user bases in many US cities, but because of it's social stigma, harvesting accurate data is hard.
If I had friends living in those cities, I would be concerned. If someone takes an appropriate dose then they feel relaxed, emotionally dissociated and 'floaty'. But if they take a little more, it rapidly tips over into an overstimulated paranoid and psychotic state. It does sound like users are more aware of this but there will always be people who automatically think more = better. I've had friend became psychotic due to cocaine, (meth)amphetamine and other stimulants and I've had friends who became psychotic due to mental health issue and if I hadn't been told in advance, I wouldn't have known the cause. But both had some executive function.
I freely admit that PCP scares me. I've not heard of another recreational drug that has resulted in the user cutting off their own genitals (Andre Johnson) or otherwise self-harming. People are vastly more likely to harm themselves than to harm others.