N&PD Moderators: Skorpio
Mysterious hallucinogenic African anti-retroviral?
hamhurricane
Bluelighter
mystery solved, its Efavirenz. there is a link to the article about its abuse on the wikipedia entry.
now i wonder about the mechanism/quality of the high, at 30 dollars a pill it must do something impressive.
LuxEtVeritas
Bluelighter
what it was was already made clear in the first reply to your post
whether it is any good and in just what fashion still remains wholly unanswered and likely require someone reputable to 'bioassay' it
Some of these people in SA probably get it for next to nothing or maybe even for free. Any locals who can confirm that?
VagabondGE
Bluelighter
Efavirenz is known under brand names Stocrin and Sustiva. It's important to know that while Atripla contains efavirenz, it also contains Truvada (tonfovir and emtricitabine).
I take Atripla, but I'm not about to smoke my fucking meds for some stupid high. Sustiva has been known to have very strange psychological effects - the most typical one being very intense dreams - I get these every night. If I have missed a dose from falling asleep or whatever and take it in the morning, I feel very 'wierd' for a good half of the day, but it is nothing I would consider enjoyable.
These drugs are just way too expensive for people to be thinking about smoking them up for fun.
Hammilton
Bluelighter
Right, but you need to understand that a good bulk of the meds available in Africa are being distributed free of charge- and thank god for that.
Do you find it to be sedating or stimulating?
Does it disinhibit you in any way?
It looks like some sort of GABA agonist, but insomnia is listed as a side effect, and a more prominent one than sedation, so I'm probably wrong.
VagabondGE
Bluelighter
I know many other people on either Atripla or Sustiva combined with other drugs, most of them have had the intense dreams at one point or another. Don't really seem to hear much about people having insomnia.
It isn't really sedating or stimulating, it's very hard to describe. It's like my subconscious mind blurs with my conscious mind. Like I have a hard time discerning between when I am daydreaming or actually thinking about things. Or things I think about I become confused as to if they really happened or I simply thought them.
Doesn't disinhibit or inhibit me.
Regardless if the people get them for free, the drugs aren't cheap to make, and I'd much rather people who are dying take the pills than some stupid kid looking for a cheap thirll smoking them up. If I could take the sustiva out of my pills and smoke it right now, I would do it simply because I'm almost certain it's nothing special and I'd be able to say 'don't bother'. If it's just an enhanced version of what I get from taking the drugs orally, it seems akin to overdosing on benadryl.
VagabondGE
Bluelighter
and with that, if anyone wants to tell me how to extract the sustiva easily from my atripla so I can put this bullshit to rest, let me know!
VagabondGE
Bluelighter
Well I only referenced benadryl in the regard that there's plenty of people who think the effects from it are 'recreational' and 'hallucinogenic'. I didn't mean that the 2 drugs are similar at all in regards to how they work.
hamhurricane
Bluelighter
^^^
im not recommending this, and i have no idea if its safe...BUT one article said the same recreational effects could be achieved orally, eg i would imagine if you took two or three times you daily dose at once whatever hallucinogenic/psychedelic/dissociative effects might precipitate - without extraction or smoking...
VagabondGE
Bluelighter
yeah no way I am doing that - it's already toxic enough to my liver and kidneys as is
Riemann Zeta
Bluelighter
When I first read this, I was assuming it was either some pyrolysis product or good old placebomine causing these effects, but an anticholinergic mechanism makes some sense. It might explain the widely diverse subjective effect profile.
