Misc Chloral Hydrate - Recreational? What does it smell like?

[bropiate]

Bit of an odd title but I just got 250g of Chloral Hydrate from a chemical supplier in China. Analytical Reagent grade, 99.5%+

It smells to me like swimming pool chlorine, slightly bleachy and has an odor of rotten fruit. A strong chlorine/halogen scent. I'm just not 100% on whether it's chloral or whether I've been sold something else.
I attached a thermocouple to a hotplate and got it to 57c and watched the what I bought melt, cut the power and saw it solidify.
All of the literature I've read online contradicts itself, for example "it smells slightly acrid and pungent" then it "it smells pungent but not acrid. The scent descriptions kind of trip me up a bit but scent is somewhat subjective.

Anyway, I assume a dose is about 500mg to 1.5g (max) I tested 2mg, then 20mg then 180mg today 40 mins apart so 202mg total, it seems to have somewhat of a sedative effect. I'm just a little concerned about contaminants as chloral hydrate from China is a little sketchy and a label on a bottle just means they had enough money to buy a label printer and a bottle, not that they can afford the equipment to make it 99%+ pure.

Also I might be getting some 2,2,2 Trichloroethanol (the active metabolite of Chloral Hydrate) but I've no idea about the dosage for that. I assume that'll be start at 100mcg and move up every 40 mins to an hour as medical literature just states that it's the active metabolite with sedative hypnotic effects, not a dosage.

I know that there's cross potentiation between benzos and am on a (stable, it's been years now) dose of methadone and a (also stable) dose of 1-2mg clonazepam a day, which is nothing compared to my 30+mg of clonazelam a day back in 2014-16

Some info on dosage, rec potential and if it really smells of chlorine mixed with stinky pear drops.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I've been curious about this one myself.

Smell is listed as "aromatic, slightly acrid" but not sure what to make of that.

 

[cosmic charlie]

Isn't very recreational.

I took some once years ago don't remember it being all that interesting, it might potentiate the Methadone quite a bit and make you Noddy. Be careful with it, seems like you are. Just work your way up and don't try to chase something that will never be there.

 

[Fire&Water]

... very petrol
we used to bite down on the 500 mg gel caps

 

[Skorpio]

Chloral and trichloroethanol should be near each other potency wise.

Narrow therapeutic index, I'd certain beware of polypharmacy with it. It was replaced by barbituates because they are safer, which says a lot.

It doesn't suppress certain types of seizures so can allow for diagnosis while under sedation, pretty much the only reason it's prescribed these days.

 

[brokedownpalace10]

I've had Alpha-chloralose, which I assume is similar. A bit of a dull sedative buzz. Can be useful to mix in small quantities with other sedatives if you are into that.
However, the "narrow therapeutic window" thing is very real. Just a little too much will knock you the fuck out.

I gave a friend who liked his downers some years ago. He would often take small amounts of various sedatives at work, he even enjoyed Ambien (one dose) at work. He took just a little too much once and they took him to the hospital. Not a dangerous situation, he was just out of it totally and didn't remember the experience. Just a little over his normal dose.

I was always a bit more responsible than him and would only do such things safely at home. However, I once dosed and settled in for some TV and woke up 5 hours later. Again, just a little bit more than usual.

 

[bropiate]

Thanks for the replies. I'm definitely going to be careful with this one. As for chloral being replaced by barbiturates, I wouldn't say that is entirely true. It's still in (limited) use today whereas the only place you'll find barbs in medical use (other than pheno or people with an almost unlimited supply of money) is in an operating theatre and even then that's extremely rare. I'm definitely not downplaying the narrow therapeutic index of chloral but I have a feeling that barbs superceded it because they were slightly (to extremely, but seconal and amytal were usually prescribed in gram amounts IIRC) more potent, didn't smell like crap and weren't hepatotoxic and therefore long-term use wasn't going to turn you yellow.

It's crazy that you've just posted this thread cos my 6 month old son is in the kid's hospital at the moment getting some scans done and they used fuckn chloral hydrate as the sedative!! When the nurse said they were using chloral hydrate I was like "sorry can you repeat that please?"
I googled it and sure enough it's used in paediatric medicine as a sedative and some other applications too, can't quite remember right now.

I have no idea about the answers to your questions though lol sorry, just thought my anecdote was interesting

Actually...I guess I will add that the nurse did mention that it can have a paradoxical excitatory effect in some cases, and sometimes the kids can "fight it" and not get sedated by it. So that's interesting to note.

Also, my son had his dose at 8:30am, had to be topped up with another half-dose at 11am, and he's still totally asleep now at 2:30pm.

The fact that it's used in pediatric medicine is a really weird one, I would have expected midazolam to be used instead. This makes me feel that it's at least somewhat safe, or safe in a controlled environment.
I've heard it's used (or was used) a lot in rehab as well, the stories from people who got it there seemed to really enjoy it, though if you're dopesick any sleep feels great.

 

[negrogesic]

Years ago I made some chloral hydrate out of trichloroethylene. The final product has a very sharp, sweet smell, not a good sweet, sort of sickly sweet. The taste was bad, definitely like something you shouldn't be ingesting.

Unfortunately the effects themselves are very hazy to me, I was taking alot of benzos at the time, and I feel like I never experience the true effect of a drug when I'm on benzos. Similarly, I've taken some psychedelics, for instance 2-CT-7 and 2-CT-2, while on benzos and I feel like I can't really comment on their effects since the experience was so hazy and distant to me when I was under their influence.

I think I just went to sleep after taking the chloral hydrate I made, I don't recall what the actual effect even felt like. I probably never even felt an effect, just passed out. I only sampled it a few times because I wasn't so confident that what I made was safe to consume. Using TCE avoids some of the danger of the more common method of making chloral hydrate (which involves a fair amount of lung dissolving chlorine gas) but the TCE I used was hardly lab grade.

In short I can't really comment on its effects but it smelled sweet, but sharper and not as pleasant as ether, chloroform or halothane (instead of throwing them away I used to abscond with the mostly empty bottles of halothane when I worked at an animal hospital).

 

[bropiate]

Years ago I made some chloral hydrate out of trichloroethylene. The final product has a very sharp, sweet smell, not a good sweet, sort of sickly sweet. The taste was bad, definitely like something you shouldn't be ingesting.

Unfortunately the effects themselves are very hazy to me, I was taking alot of benzos at the time, and I feel like I never experience the true effect of a drug when I'm on benzos. Similarly, I've taken some psychedelics, for instance 2-CT-7 and 2-CT-2, while on benzos and I feel like I can't really comment on their effects since the experience was so hazy and distant to me when I was under their influence.

I think I just went to sleep after taking the chloral hydrate I made, I don't recall what the actual effect even felt like. I probably never even felt an effect, just passed out. I only sampled it a few times because I wasn't so confident that what I made was safe to consume. Using TCE avoids some of the danger of the more common method of making chloral hydrate (which involves a fair amount of lung dissolving chlorine gas) but the TCE I used was hardly lab grade.

In short I can't really comment on its effects but it smelled sweet, but sharper and not as pleasant as ether, chloroform or halothane (instead of throwing them away I used to abscond with the mostly empty bottles of halothane when I worked at an animal hospital).

Thanks for the update, the smell from the bottle it came in is extremely sharp and almost overpowering and quite irritating to my nose though it is a fairly large amount. However a small amount (about half a gram) does have that sort of odd sweetish smell to it, though still has a hint of 'chlorinated pool water' in it.
Comparing the smell against ether was a good move as I had ether a few years ago and it has a really sweet lingering smell that'll fill up a room in minutes, though the smell of ether isn't entirely unpleasant.

As for the physical properties of it, it's a clearish-white crystalline solid (really big clumps of tiny little crystals) which and is almost 'oily' to the touch. There's a video of a synthesis (chlorine bubbled through ethanol) however the product looks completely different to what I have, though that might be a difference in purity, or maybe they ground it to powder after purification.

 

[G_Chem]

I have some as an old child’s tooth medicine I found in an antique store, I’ve never taken it cuz it’s more a novelty than anything. I’d whiff it but it’s got other additives making it not worth the effort.

-GC

 

[S.J.B.]

I took some a while back. I seemed to have liked it at the time, but I never felt the desire to do it again. It wasn't terribly interesting.

 

[bropiate]

I took some a while back. I seemed to have liked it at the time, but I never felt the desire to do it again. It wasn't terribly interesting.

Reading over that thread can you clarify "I immediately felt my face flush"? Was this due to the taste of it? Expectations? Or do you mean it was faster acting than benzos?

When I took the rest of the 202mg (probably anywhere between 182-222mg given the fact the scales I used only go to 10mg and are about +-20mg I did feel a fast acting sedative effect but put it down to me expecting it to do that.
Do you remember what it looked like as a crystalline solid? Was it almost 'oily' to the touch (if there was enough to physically feel 10mg or so) did it have a chlorine like odor?

Looking at a lot of old threads "It wasn't terribly interesting" comes up a lot. I'm not personally sure if that has to do with expectations (it being the first real sedative-hypnotic and all) VS reality. I'd imagine that if Z drugs replaced benzos entirely in the next 20 years and barbs were completely impossible to get a lot of people would see chlordiazepoxide or diazepam as their 'Everest' and be disappointed when they actually got there.

Maybe I need to up the dose to 500mg, which seems to the the "usual" prescribed dose, but there isn't much medical info out there on chloral. It's mostly sourced back to the late 1800s or early 1900s in medical literature. The fact that it's usually compounded into a syrup further makes identification difficult.

 

[emkee_reinvented]

According to the "Farmacotherapeutisch Kompas" a dose for kids above 1 year is Oral/rectal: 50 mg/kg. Max. 2000 mg.
Its still in use over here, probably because it does not suppress seizures. And for status epilepticus and as pre-anesthetic. But only in hospital settings I believe, and both are off label use. So not the first line choice. Why they only use it on kids is a mystery to me.

But while showering the thought occurred that a 1 year old only weighs around 10 kg. Which makes 500 mg a dose. Don't use this as adult, I am 68 kg. But I think 500 mg is still a dose. Not 68 kg x 50 mg, as that would mean 3.5 gram.
Oops, I think my math is a bit of it calculates to 35 grams, men I suck at math these days . Certainly a overdose. Edited it just now.
And there is no explanation about the max dose of 2 grams. Like in a day or per serving.

And they use pharmaceutical grade Chloral Hydrate! Hope that helps a bit.

 

[S.J.B.]

Reading over that thread can you clarify "I immediately felt my face flush"? Was this due to the taste of it? Expectations? Or do you mean it was faster acting than benzos?

I think it was an immediate reaction to the compound itself, not due to the taste or expectations.

Do you remember what it looked like as a crystalline solid? Was it almost 'oily' to the touch (if there was enough to physically feel 10mg or so) did it have a chlorine like odor?

I think they were pretty standard small, colourless crystals, not needle-like but roughly cubic like salt. There was a chlorine-like odour but I don't know if I ever touched it with my hand (might have used a spoon or something).

 

[bropiate]

I took 400mg a day ago. Pretty sure it's chloral hydrate. It took effect very quickly; faster than a benzo for example, other than IV midazolam which I got at the dentist when getting a wisdom tooth pulled, though I never got sent back to the specialist surgery for the other wisdom tooth so I've only had midazolam once. It takes effect within about 5-10 minutes of consumption and it even has a small 'rush' on the comeup.
After that however you just feel a bit tired and dazed. Also it causes (me at least) pretty bad gastrointestinal problems as I was belching and farting for about 14 hours after.
So either it isn't very recreational or I'm just not taking enough, though taking more than 400mg (probably up to 1g) is tickling the dragon's tail given the fact I'm prescribed 80mg of methadone daily and also take 2-3mg of clonazepam/day.

Maybe people react to chloral hydrate differently, after all Marylin Monroe and Anna Nichole Smith had enough money to get whatever drugs they wanted from their doctors so it must do something that other GABAergic CNS depressants don't do but unless the gastrointestinal side effects and mild headaches don't scale with use (which I doubt) it might not be as good as I thought it would be.

I wish I could find barbs (other than pheno) as they're like the best out of the GABA CNS depressants by my metric of "does it feel really good for a long time".

 

[izo]

had 5g of chloral hydrate some years ago. i think its rubbish, no real entertaining effect and not sedating enough if you really need sleep. id prefer alcohol. prost.

 

[bropiate]

It's crazy that you've just posted this thread cos my 6 month old son is in the kid's hospital at the moment getting some scans done and they used fuckn chloral hydrate as the sedative!! When the nurse said they were using chloral hydrate I was like "sorry can you repeat that please?"
I googled it and sure enough it's used in paediatric medicine as a sedative and some other applications too, can't quite remember right now.

I have no idea about the answers to your questions though lol sorry, just thought my anecdote was interesting

Actually...I guess I will add that the nurse did mention that it can have a paradoxical excitatory effect in some cases, and sometimes the kids can "fight it" and not get sedated by it. So that's interesting to note.

Also, my son had his dose at 8:30am, had to be topped up with another half-dose at 11am, and he's still totally asleep now at 2:30pm.

Just curious but how did they give the chloral to your child?
As a syrup? Or is there a way for it to be admiministered through an IV line? Or was it given via PR administration?
Just asking as it tastes absolutely terrible and burns a bit on the way down. It definitely doesn't taste like something you should drink, so if it was given orally I'd love to know what syrup they used.

I suppose gelcaps could be used, maybe that's why it's used so much in pediatrics as you can give enough of a dose that it doesn't feel like your stomach is being dissolved.

I was sitting in shorts and decided to measure the largest crystal of the chloral hydrate I got, spilled a few crystals on my leg and didn't notice until I had a burning feeling and rash.

 

[bropiate]

Got a bit of an unexpected update. The 2,2,2-trichloroethanol I bought arrived.
It's a liquid and smells similar but a lot more like an alcohol, because it's an alcohol.
It's also from a respectable chemical supplier that I got through what I guess I can only call a sketchy chemical supplier I found on the clear Web with a fairly low Google review score. It took about 2 weeks to arrive from me paying for it and was properly packaged, properly labeled and had the label brand (which I trust) from a big chemical supplier worldwide (Hint they have two words in their company name and the first is a Greek letter) so I assume sketchy "Will sell to residential housing" chem supplier was just doing the job of a middle man.

So upon discovering that it had been delivered (yesterday, today) I unpacked it, took a look, a smell then did what no chemist should do and ignored the corrosive label (it shouldn't be too corrosive if it's real) and dipped my finger in it, then took a taste.
Strong alcohol burn to it but even with what had to be a dozen or so milligrams I definitely felt something other than my mouth burning like I'd just tossed some moonshine in it.

It's supposed to work like chloral hydrate but have less ubwanted side effects such severe gas. I shall update with my results tomorrow. I guess somebody else will pull on the same string as I have and will come looking for answers for 222-TCE so I may as well document things. Even though most search engines have this forum on the second page unless searched for by name, "for safety reasons" I assume even though Bluelight is all about safety.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Just curious but how did they give the chloral to your child?
As a syrup? Or is there a way for it to be admiministered through an IV line? Or was it given via PR administration?
Just asking as it tastes absolutely terrible and burns a bit on the way down. It definitely doesn't taste like something you should drink, so if it was given orally I'd love to know what syrup they used.

I suppose gelcaps could be used, maybe that's why it's used so much in pediatrics as you can give enough of a dose that it doesn't feel like your stomach is being dissolved.

I was sitting in shorts and decided to measure the largest crystal of the chloral hydrate I got, spilled a few crystals on my leg and didn't notice until I had a burning feeling and rash.

They just gave it as an oral liquid! It tasted and smelled pretty awful though, almost like mouthwash?? He really hated it.

 

[bropiate]

Just as an update, I took ~350mg of chloral hydrate 4 days ago as I was having a lot of trouble getting to sleep. I'd had a few drinks prior and 1mg of clonazepam however after 30 mins of lying in bed I just couldn't sleep. I tried 25mg of promethazine and was still wide awake 40 minutes later.
After taking roughly 350mg (I weighed it out to be about 370mg but didn't consume all of it) I lay down and felt an almost immediate rush from the chloral. I fell asleep within 10 minutes but those 5-10 minutes felt quite good.
I was pretty drowsy and groggy the day after but it does feel like it has some recreational potential, it's just not the same as benzos/barbs. However it's (by far) a better sedative/hypnotic than the sedative antihistamines.
I feel it's place in pharmacy is well earned. It's definitely not a first line drug and I probably wouldn't say it's a recreational drug (at least on it's own or in low doses) but it definitely has a use and I guess that's why it still hasn't been totally superceded by newer drugs like benzos.

Given the fact that tolerance (supposedly) builds up after more than one day of concurrent use and dependence mimics alcohol withdrawal (and can happen in a week or just more) I definitely wouldn't use it more than two times a week with a 4-5 day break in between but if I just can't get to sleep it's something I would use. It does seem to have a place as a hypnotic however, though it's probably best used when you don't have to do anything the day after which is probably why it's used in surgery, pediatric medicine and in rehab; people in those situations don't need to wake up early and go to work.