A couple months ago I acquired a couple grams of AM-2201 from a reputable vendor. It came as a clear white crystalline powder. Not being able to afford pot as often as I would like, the information I had found concerning these synthetic cannabinoids, particularly the potency of ones such as AM-2201, was quite intriguing to me. To begin my trials I had decided to try vaporizing VERY small amounts of the pure substance in an "oil burner" style pipe. Having read all about how potent this compound is, and about all the poor dumb bastards that overdosed themselves and freaked out or otherwise had horrible experiences, I started by scooping out but a few grains with the tip of a toothpick and tapping them into the bulb of the pipe. The first thing I learned was that the melting point of AM-2201 is very low. Just a touch of heat and it instantly forms a perfectly clear spot of melted substance. What took me a little longer to fully realize and accept (derp) is that the vaporization point of this stuff is very high. Using a normal Bic lighter I was basically unable to vaporize this substance in the oiler. At first I wasn't sure what the problem was and I figured I was erring on the cautious side in terms of dosage, so I kept putting more and more of the substance into my pipe in small increments, which only formed more and larger spots of the melted substance. Now, given the potency of this stuff, I was still successfully getting high in my attempts to vaporize, but I was indeed vaporizing Very little of how much was actually in my pipe with each "hit" I took (depending on technique, some hits were more successful than others). At some point my lighter ran out and I started using this box of these large strike anywhere matches that produced a larger flame than the Bic lighter. This seemed to achieve vaporization Somewhat more effectively, though not by much. Eventually I resorted to using a regular pot pipe with screens to attempt vaporization with a direct flame. Even with a direct flame to it this stuff would hardly budge! So my technique just degenerated into directly touching the flame to the substance itself to "smoke" it, at which point it snaps crackles and pops, and no doubt most of the substance is destroyed, as I seemed to get roughly the same effects per hit as I did with the oiler. I burned through my couple of grams quite fast (a few weeks) doing this casually on a daily basis. When I had used up the bulk of the substance, I decided to try tearing off pieces of rolling paper, wetting them a bit, and wiping up the inside of the baggy, and smoking these little folded up pieces of rolling paper in my pot pipe. Ironically this turned out to seem to be the best method of administration I had tried. The physics of the compound being spread out over a larger surface area and the way the paper burned, etc, seemed to work out to be the most effective method of administration I had tried. I did not get around to trying oral administration. It would certainly seem to me that if you get this substance in pure form and are wanting to be able to vaporize it, applying it properly to a smokable medium such as herbs or whatever would apparently be the way to go, hands down.
Now, as for the actual effects this stuff had on me, where to begin? Lets start with the overdoses. I overdosed a handful of times, to varying degrees of severity. The most intense was the first or second night of my experimentation. As soon as I felt the wave of anxious dread wash over me after taking too big a hit I knew I had overshot and immediately arose from my desk chair and laid down on my bed to ride it out. I laid in bed half sitting up ready to run to the garbage can, which I did, and vomited until nothing more would come up. I laid back down on my side, stroking at my skin attempting to feel myself, as the strong analgesic effects of this substance made me quite numb to the touch. I continued to lay on my side, pleading with myself to never use this substance again. I attempted to strike a deal with the universe that if this awful awful feeling would subside sooner than later I would wash all the rest of the substance down the drain and never try it again, although I knew I would continue my experimentations despite my current despair. What a horrible feeling this was, I thought, that I would even insincerely attempt to strike such a deal. What a bunch of pussies though, I also thought, thinking of all the reports I had read of people running around screaming, calling for help, going to the hospital, and what have you. Looking back on all this, though, if people were to overdose beyond whatever doses I had experienced, it is understandable indeed that such things could happen. In any case I continued to lay there for what must have been a half hour to an hour, feeling absolute chemical induced anxiety and dread. My mouth was dry and greasy feeling, and had a foul metallic taste to it, much like the taste I have found LSD to cause one to have. Eventually I passed out and awoke the next day to continue my trials.
Most of my other overdoses with AM-2201 caused shorter lived but stranger effects that I can only describe as seizures of some sort (serotonin syndrome?). I do not know if such an experience technically counts as a seizure, but that is the closest thing I can think of to describe it. The experience of these "seizures" bore similarities to what one can experience during intense psychedelic states, such as with Salvia and DMT. For example I had taken a hit and sat down to watch a TV show with chips and a bowl of salsa, and ended up in one of these "seizure" states where my hand was in the salsa bowl and I was caught in a sort of mind loop where I would realize just enough about my current situation to attempt to remove my hand from the bowl and then my consciousness would reset and I would realize this all over again and attempt to move my hand all over again and it would keep going in loops like that while I slowly came down and the duration of each loop increased each time to the point I was able to think "Christ my hand has been in this bowl of salsa for several minutes now, If I can just manage to maintain a thread of consciousness long enough to take my hand out and set the bowl down!" Though I draw similarities to psychedelic experiences, I would like to point out very clearly, since others have made allusions to AM-2201 being "psychedelic," that the experience imparted is NOT psychedelic. If you are looking for new psychedelics to try, I am sure there is a long list of substances you have never tried which provide a genuinely psychedelic experience, are more pleasant in general, and do not have the same pitfalls as something like this.
Aside from the handful of unpleasant overdose experiences, I basically spent 3 or 4 weeks in a very weird and alien headspace. Yes, a subset of its overall effects bears similarity to a cannabis stoning, and I did have some good and sometimes pleasantly intense experiences watching TV shows while high on this stuff, but there are lots of additional effects that leave one unsure how to even categorize them. At one point toward the end of this several-week long trial, I had what I believe to be the only deliriant-style hallucination I have ever experienced. I was casually sitting at my computer, chatting on IRC, when I heard a loud crashing sound by the window. I looked over toward the window and saw what I thought looked like an animal's face hiding in the corner by the window. I thought to myself "Oh crap, I'm high and some weird animal just busted through my window, now what am I going to do?" I kept looking and it started to move around very slowly, at which point I decided it looked like a badger. I hopped up on my chair and started asking people on IRC what the best way to kill a badger was. I thought "Oh shit I'm gonna wrestle with some ferocious animal and quite possibly die, how the fuck does this shit happen to me?" I also knew that I was high, and there was a possibility I was having a deliriant-style hallucination. I decided to wait it out and at least see if this was for real, at which point this animal started slowly crawling toward me. As it got closer it appeared to be this grotesque alien looking creature with two halves joined at the side like a siamese twin. It curled around the leg of my bed and twisted itself inside out to reveal hundreds of gently swaying tendrils which had rainbows of colors sweeping over them as they swayed. I suppose it was then that I decided it was a hallucination, and it was safe to come back down off of my chair. It might also be interesting to note that I have encountered similar such odd creatures in dreams before.
It seems appropriate to bring my evaluation of this substance to a close with a description of the comedown period, and of some side-effects and random weirdness experienced both during my trials and during the comedown period. For a period of upward of 2 weeks after cessation of use of AM-2201, I was in a perpetual amphetamine-like state. I had difficulty getting to sleep and the sleep would be shorter and less refreshing, I was very much more manic than I would normally be, I had lots of energy, I found myself highly and easily irritable, and I found it difficult to not constantly engage in various repetitive ticks like twitching my jaw or rubbing my fingers. I was quite simply amped, though not as intensely as if one was actually high on an amphetamine-like substance. None of this was experienced while actually conducting my experiments with this substance, only afterward. Now, I would also like to list a few highly odd and possibly troubling side-effects experienced both during my experimentation and during the long comedown period following cessation of use. This stuff had very strange effects on my sense of balance and my ability to move around. I noted this incredibly weird tendency to be drawn to my left side while walking. I would run into things like the side of a doorway or crash into the wall while walking down the hallway, so I would move in a slow and very deliberate manner to attempt to correct for this. It was still difficult to properly correct for with ease, much like trying to cut your own hair with two mirrors or something. Another incredibly odd side-effect was on my ability to go up and down stairs. The muscles either on the front or back side of my legs were not working as hard as they would be normally or something, requiring me to maneuver stairs very slowly and deliberately, being careful not to fall over. It made me think of that scene in that Hostel movie where they cut somebody's Achilles tendons and they go to walk away and fall over instead. It was like certain muscles just weren't even there any more, or operating at a very sub-par level. Finally I would like to draw attention once again to the strong analgesic properties of AM-2201. Both during my trials and persisting through the entire duration of the comedown period, I felt numb all over my body, not to an overly alarming degree, but to a very noticeable degree.
I would like to assert that I was not indulging in this substance to any ridiculous, gluttonous degree, as many may suspect reading over my experience with it. I simply attempted to use it as I would normally use pot: taking a hit or two here and there over the course of the day or night to bring on and maintain/revisit a mild to moderate stoning for the purposes of relaxation and enhancement of leisure activities. It is impossible to know how much I actually used in what period of time, as the vast majority of the substance I am sure I annihilated through my utter failure at properly vaporizing it.
Anyway, after about 2 weeks of continued side-effects and the general amped-up state of being I found myself in during this period, I finally leveled out, and now, a month or two later, I can say with absolute clarity and certainty that I am 100% back to normal. As one might guess, I do not anticipate desiring to conduct personal trials with synthetic cannabinoids ever again. This is weird shit, guys. If you want to get stoned, get some weed. If you want to trip, get some psychedelics. If you want to experiment with something new, weird, and potentially dangerous just for its own sake - well, this is the only sane context for this stuff in my opinion.
Now, as for the actual effects this stuff had on me, where to begin? Lets start with the overdoses. I overdosed a handful of times, to varying degrees of severity. The most intense was the first or second night of my experimentation. As soon as I felt the wave of anxious dread wash over me after taking too big a hit I knew I had overshot and immediately arose from my desk chair and laid down on my bed to ride it out. I laid in bed half sitting up ready to run to the garbage can, which I did, and vomited until nothing more would come up. I laid back down on my side, stroking at my skin attempting to feel myself, as the strong analgesic effects of this substance made me quite numb to the touch. I continued to lay on my side, pleading with myself to never use this substance again. I attempted to strike a deal with the universe that if this awful awful feeling would subside sooner than later I would wash all the rest of the substance down the drain and never try it again, although I knew I would continue my experimentations despite my current despair. What a horrible feeling this was, I thought, that I would even insincerely attempt to strike such a deal. What a bunch of pussies though, I also thought, thinking of all the reports I had read of people running around screaming, calling for help, going to the hospital, and what have you. Looking back on all this, though, if people were to overdose beyond whatever doses I had experienced, it is understandable indeed that such things could happen. In any case I continued to lay there for what must have been a half hour to an hour, feeling absolute chemical induced anxiety and dread. My mouth was dry and greasy feeling, and had a foul metallic taste to it, much like the taste I have found LSD to cause one to have. Eventually I passed out and awoke the next day to continue my trials.
Most of my other overdoses with AM-2201 caused shorter lived but stranger effects that I can only describe as seizures of some sort (serotonin syndrome?). I do not know if such an experience technically counts as a seizure, but that is the closest thing I can think of to describe it. The experience of these "seizures" bore similarities to what one can experience during intense psychedelic states, such as with Salvia and DMT. For example I had taken a hit and sat down to watch a TV show with chips and a bowl of salsa, and ended up in one of these "seizure" states where my hand was in the salsa bowl and I was caught in a sort of mind loop where I would realize just enough about my current situation to attempt to remove my hand from the bowl and then my consciousness would reset and I would realize this all over again and attempt to move my hand all over again and it would keep going in loops like that while I slowly came down and the duration of each loop increased each time to the point I was able to think "Christ my hand has been in this bowl of salsa for several minutes now, If I can just manage to maintain a thread of consciousness long enough to take my hand out and set the bowl down!" Though I draw similarities to psychedelic experiences, I would like to point out very clearly, since others have made allusions to AM-2201 being "psychedelic," that the experience imparted is NOT psychedelic. If you are looking for new psychedelics to try, I am sure there is a long list of substances you have never tried which provide a genuinely psychedelic experience, are more pleasant in general, and do not have the same pitfalls as something like this.
Aside from the handful of unpleasant overdose experiences, I basically spent 3 or 4 weeks in a very weird and alien headspace. Yes, a subset of its overall effects bears similarity to a cannabis stoning, and I did have some good and sometimes pleasantly intense experiences watching TV shows while high on this stuff, but there are lots of additional effects that leave one unsure how to even categorize them. At one point toward the end of this several-week long trial, I had what I believe to be the only deliriant-style hallucination I have ever experienced. I was casually sitting at my computer, chatting on IRC, when I heard a loud crashing sound by the window. I looked over toward the window and saw what I thought looked like an animal's face hiding in the corner by the window. I thought to myself "Oh crap, I'm high and some weird animal just busted through my window, now what am I going to do?" I kept looking and it started to move around very slowly, at which point I decided it looked like a badger. I hopped up on my chair and started asking people on IRC what the best way to kill a badger was. I thought "Oh shit I'm gonna wrestle with some ferocious animal and quite possibly die, how the fuck does this shit happen to me?" I also knew that I was high, and there was a possibility I was having a deliriant-style hallucination. I decided to wait it out and at least see if this was for real, at which point this animal started slowly crawling toward me. As it got closer it appeared to be this grotesque alien looking creature with two halves joined at the side like a siamese twin. It curled around the leg of my bed and twisted itself inside out to reveal hundreds of gently swaying tendrils which had rainbows of colors sweeping over them as they swayed. I suppose it was then that I decided it was a hallucination, and it was safe to come back down off of my chair. It might also be interesting to note that I have encountered similar such odd creatures in dreams before.
It seems appropriate to bring my evaluation of this substance to a close with a description of the comedown period, and of some side-effects and random weirdness experienced both during my trials and during the comedown period. For a period of upward of 2 weeks after cessation of use of AM-2201, I was in a perpetual amphetamine-like state. I had difficulty getting to sleep and the sleep would be shorter and less refreshing, I was very much more manic than I would normally be, I had lots of energy, I found myself highly and easily irritable, and I found it difficult to not constantly engage in various repetitive ticks like twitching my jaw or rubbing my fingers. I was quite simply amped, though not as intensely as if one was actually high on an amphetamine-like substance. None of this was experienced while actually conducting my experiments with this substance, only afterward. Now, I would also like to list a few highly odd and possibly troubling side-effects experienced both during my experimentation and during the long comedown period following cessation of use. This stuff had very strange effects on my sense of balance and my ability to move around. I noted this incredibly weird tendency to be drawn to my left side while walking. I would run into things like the side of a doorway or crash into the wall while walking down the hallway, so I would move in a slow and very deliberate manner to attempt to correct for this. It was still difficult to properly correct for with ease, much like trying to cut your own hair with two mirrors or something. Another incredibly odd side-effect was on my ability to go up and down stairs. The muscles either on the front or back side of my legs were not working as hard as they would be normally or something, requiring me to maneuver stairs very slowly and deliberately, being careful not to fall over. It made me think of that scene in that Hostel movie where they cut somebody's Achilles tendons and they go to walk away and fall over instead. It was like certain muscles just weren't even there any more, or operating at a very sub-par level. Finally I would like to draw attention once again to the strong analgesic properties of AM-2201. Both during my trials and persisting through the entire duration of the comedown period, I felt numb all over my body, not to an overly alarming degree, but to a very noticeable degree.
I would like to assert that I was not indulging in this substance to any ridiculous, gluttonous degree, as many may suspect reading over my experience with it. I simply attempted to use it as I would normally use pot: taking a hit or two here and there over the course of the day or night to bring on and maintain/revisit a mild to moderate stoning for the purposes of relaxation and enhancement of leisure activities. It is impossible to know how much I actually used in what period of time, as the vast majority of the substance I am sure I annihilated through my utter failure at properly vaporizing it.
Anyway, after about 2 weeks of continued side-effects and the general amped-up state of being I found myself in during this period, I finally leveled out, and now, a month or two later, I can say with absolute clarity and certainty that I am 100% back to normal. As one might guess, I do not anticipate desiring to conduct personal trials with synthetic cannabinoids ever again. This is weird shit, guys. If you want to get stoned, get some weed. If you want to trip, get some psychedelics. If you want to experiment with something new, weird, and potentially dangerous just for its own sake - well, this is the only sane context for this stuff in my opinion.
