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☮ Social ☮ PD Social Tripping Thread: Euphoric Rambles for Swirling Souls

And yeah, I worry about the heart valve thing too. If it's any consolation, I know that while Dr. Shulgin did have to have a heart surgery related to this kind of issue late in life, it's worth considering that he favored the phenethylamines which apparently bind about as strongly there as MDMA, and he used them for his entire life and only had that one consequence from it after already making it into old age. This would seem to suggest to me at least that if damage is being done, it might be at least slow enough, especially if you favor indoles, that it's still something you could consider a fair trade for a lifetime's worth of the good psychedelics can do for you. Anyway, those are my feelings about it for right now.

I wish we knew more about how chronic usage of psychedelics affects the human body. There are people out there who have been using PDs their whole life, and sometimes in large volume, but I think data is few and far between. Even Shulgin, I don't think we know too well how often, and what exactly, he was dosing. Maybe someone can ask Ann. Hoffman lived over a hundred, it would be good to know how often he was dosing, from what I can gather he never really said much specifically about his habits or non-habits with LSD. Then there's all kinds of shaman type traditional healers etc, using iboga, peyote, ayahuasca, san pedro. I wish we had more studies on these people so we knew a bit more about risks and safety, but I suspect these types of people wouldn't enjoy too much being the object of a scientific study.

I guess in the end, it doesn't matter too much because psychedelics are probably most useful when taken occasionally... buuuut I think if I knew it was perfectly safe, I'd make a fairly regular habit of micro-dosing.
 
Albert Hofmann didn't trip much according to this interview https://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/hofmann_albert/hofmann_albert_interview1.shtml but it's from 1976.

Hofmann:
My ten to 15 experiments with LSD were distributed over 27 years. The last one was in 1970. Since then I have taken no more LSD, because I believe that all an LSD experience can give me has already been given. Maybe later in my life I will have the need to take it once or several times more.
 
If anyone is interested, my MET trip report is up. :) It can be found here:

(MET/35 mg) - First Time - A Very Noteworthy Analogue

I wish we knew more about how chronic usage of psychedelics affects the human body. There are people out there who have been using PDs their whole life, and sometimes in large volume, but I think data is few and far between. Even Shulgin, I don't think we know too well how often, and what exactly, he was dosing. Maybe someone can ask Ann. Hoffman lived over a hundred, it would be good to know how often he was dosing, from what I can gather he never really said much specifically about his habits or non-habits with LSD. Then there's all kinds of shaman type traditional healers etc, using iboga, peyote, ayahuasca, san pedro. I wish we had more studies on these people so we knew a bit more about risks and safety, but I suspect these types of people wouldn't enjoy too much being the object of a scientific study.

I guess in the end, it doesn't matter too much because psychedelics are probably most useful when taken occasionally... buuuut I think if I knew it was perfectly safe, I'd make a fairly regular habit of micro-dosing.

Yeah, it would really be nice to have some data like that. Another confounding issue I think is just the fact that the more you look into people who have been using psychedelic drugs their whole lives, the more you're going to find people who have been using drugs of all other kinds their whole lives too, making the data on them personally basically useless. For instance, I have family members who have taken LSD hundreds of times over the span of decades, but they've also been using cannabis daily for even longer, have been drinking regularly for at least the last couple decades of that, and have been taking various prescription pills for various reasons at several points throughout that whole span. Any valuable information that seems like it could come out of that level of LSD use is pretty much lost.

As for psychedelics being best when used occasionally, that's just, like, your opinion, man. ;) Regardless of the lack of information, I'm honestly not afraid of using psychedelics regularly for the rest of my life, at least the ones that are obviously not more dangerous like the NBOMes and stuff. Even just anecdotally, looking at the people who used them their whole lives and other drugs as well, it would appear to me that they're at least not really more dangerous than a lot of the types of food I eat often to enjoy myself, plenty of which will give you health problems late in life if you eat them too regularly. And again, if I have heart troubles when I'm 80 because I enjoyed 60 years of wild hedonistic fun, then I think that's a pretty darn fair trade. Bring on the heart valve surgery.

Albert Hofmann didn't trip much according to this interview https://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/hofmann_albert/hofmann_albert_interview1.shtml but it's from 1976.

Hofmann:
My ten to 15 experiments with LSD were distributed over 27 years. The last one was in 1970. Since then I have taken no more LSD, because I believe that all an LSD experience can give me has already been given. Maybe later in my life I will have the need to take it once or several times more.

That is quite interesting, thanks for sharing. Albert Hofmann was a cool cat, even before discovering LSD. I wouldn't be surprised if he was just able to get all the new questions he needed out of those few trips to last him a lifetime.
 
I wonder how bad an idea it is to revisit GHB sometimes, just get a little stash of it. I mean yea it's addictive, but doesn't have such a big tendency to be debilitating very fast, and it should be pretty limiting to not have a pretty much unlimited supply like I used to have.
I should probably work out a little better what I am planning to do with it and/or how often, it's all probably pretty sneaky in the way poly drug abuse traps you.

May have been one of the recent times I did acid and took a little pregabalin on the comedown which is just brilliant, that reminded me a lot of the feeling of G instead of pregabalin.

I think there are a lot of signs that I have much better control over my drug use nowadays like I can have a benzo in my home but it doesn't really lead to anything. On the other hand each distinct role they play or relationship I have with them can be different enough that it determines whether I just have it on hand for functional use, or whether it's just one of those things that bewitch me into some progressing stupor.

this post was originally part of a post in the other social thread, but while it's not nice to prohibit trippy or druggy talk there altogether, it's better to 'dive into it' here.. :)
 
I also have better control over myself these days, but it's still a risk factor for me to have certain kinds of drugs around. Particularly, I get compulsive with empathogens and empathogenic stimulants. I just found the most insane deal on 4-EMC ever and it turns out I love 4-EMC. I find it less compulsive than methylone and some others, but I am going to have... quite a lot of it soon. Makes me a little concerned but I think I am up to the task, but it'll be an exercise in self-control for sure. I just didn't want to pass up on a stupidly good deal on a really nice empathogen, that has way less negative side-effects than any other one I've ever used.
 
Dissos are the only thing I can't have around, 3-MeO-PCP especially. I have some ketamine now but I don't fancy it anymore. I can also keep weed, benzos etc without problems.
 
Yeah, psychedelics I'm totally good, also weed, regardless of how much I have I use it at the same rate. Alcohol can get a little compulsive for me, but it's kinda self-limiting too because if I overindulge I don't feel good. 3-MeO is the only disso I can get compulsive with, I've had some MXE around for almost a year and I hardly ever touch it, and I have a half gram of DCK I don't know that I'll ever use. I never have benzos but I don't care for them, if I did have a stash I would probably forget I had it most of the time. I don't allow myself to touch opiates anymore because history has shown that's the worst for me. So it's really just empathogenic stimulants. I have a tendency to use propylhexedrine more than I should, it's been roughly weekly but it's been more at times. Now I have 4-EMC so it will be my go-to stimulant. I'm going to exercise good control over it, it'll be a learning/growing experience. There have been times in the recent past where I had methylone and did it every other day until it was gone, and I don't want to do that this time.
 
Did you notice any side effects when abusing methylone, Xorkoth? Like mood issues, or memory problems, brain zaps, headaches, etc. .. ?

Empathogens kind of scare me away because of the speculated serotonin depletion/nerve terminal destruction, even though there are papers out there that contradict this hypothesis and also many people seem to be fine after overdoing them. But I don't know, I'm an overly cautious drug user, he.

did you notice any problem ?
 
I actually have never experienced brain zaps from methylone, I have from MDMA and also AMT, but not methylone, despite times of abusing it pretty hard. Methylone feels very predominantly dopamine-y to me. The negatives I notice from methylone abuse are brief periods of low mood if I do it multiple days in a row, or every other day for a while, and a lot of fatigue and general malaise when not doing it, when I'm overdoing it.

It should be noted my brain/body has always been very resilient, to this day some friends who are 10 years younger than me are like, WTF man, how do you do that? I'm like, you should have seen me 10 years ago... I was straight up crazy. =D
 
As for psychedelics being best when used occasionally, that's just, like, your opinion, man. ;) Regardless of the lack of information, I'm honestly not afraid of using psychedelics regularly for the rest of my life, at least the ones that are obviously not more dangerous like the NBOMes and stuff. Even just anecdotally, looking at the people who used them their whole lives and other drugs as well, it would appear to me that they're at least not really more dangerous than a lot of the types of food I eat often to enjoy myself, plenty of which will give you health problems late in life if you eat them too regularly. And again, if I have heart troubles when I'm 80 because I enjoyed 60 years of wild hedonistic fun, then I think that's a pretty darn fair trade. Bring on the heart valve surgery.

That's the spirit :) Yeah I agree, the heart valve thing is a pretty small risk. Something to look out for though, and personally it's enough of a risk to me that it's not worth establishing a microdose regimen. But I'd be pretty comfortable with a proper trip once a month for the rest of my life - although to be honest it's hard to find the time even for that.

FWIW: I'm looking at some binding data I have in a spreadsheet (originating from a source I've lost track of) and it shows the 5ht2a:5ht2b ratio as pretty favorable for 5-MeO-DMT, compared most of the other psychedelics on the list. LSD, and surprisingly, DOI have even better ratios though. DPT seems to have a "bad" ratio. Not sure how much to trust my numbers though, as I don't even know the source.

I'm not sure how you calculated your ratios Kaleida, but I was thinking that a meaningful way to caculate this "5ht2b safety ratio" would be: log(5ht2a)/log(5ht2b) because the closer you get to 0, the more signifigant small variations are. What do you think of this metric? Solipsis?

or maybe: sqrt(5ht2a)/sqrt(5ht2b) is better.
edit: yeah using square root gives the most sensible values.

My safety list looks like this:
(low numbers are "safer", defined as strong 5ht2a agonism compared to 5ht2b)
NSFW:
Compound: sqrt(h5t2b)/sqrt(ht2a2a)
LSD: 0.61
DOI: 0.70
5-MeO-DMT: 0.72
cis-2a: 0.82
SS-2c: 0.84
DOET: 0.97
2C-E: 1.32
lisuride: 1.36
2C-B: 1.43
RR-2b: 1.49
TMA-2: 1.95
4C-T-2: 2.2
DOB: 2.4
2C-T-2: 2.6
5-MeO-MIPT: 2.8
2C-B-fly:3.6
DMT: 4.6
6-F-DMT: 5.4
Aleph-2: 6.1
DOM: 6.6
MEM: 7.8
DPT: 7.8
Psilocin: 8.5
MDA: N/A
MDMA: N/A
Mescaline: N/A
DIPT: N/A
5-MeO-DIPT: N/A
TMA: N/A
5-MeO-TMT: N/A
Ibogaine: N/A


Interesting that some of the compounds on this list are in a very different order from Kaleidas. Show how these different studies, and different methodologies can end up with different results. Psilocin in particular.

The N/A ones were out of range of measurement in the study, or incomplete data.
 
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Tried 100mg oral 5 methyl ethylone. Tried it once before and rememberd dosing 400mg. Dont think I will. It just mDe me feel paranoid, which os what I remember of ot. Prolly wont do anymore for a while/ever

Added 50mg 5apb rectal and that was nice.

Excisted to combp 5/6 apb soon
 
idk sounds good man :)

Uh how about (1/(5ht2a^x)/(1/(5ht2b^x) and play with the exponent a little? logarithmic may be a bit much...
 
FWIW: I'm looking at some binding data I have in a spreadsheet (originating from a source I've lost track of) and it shows the 5ht2a:5ht2b ratio as pretty favorable for 5-MeO-DMT, compared most of the other psychedelics on the list. LSD, and surprisingly, DOI have even better ratios though. DPT seems to have a "bad" ratio. Not sure how much to trust my numbers though, as I don't even know the source.

I'm not sure how you calculated your ratios Kaleida, but I was thinking that a meaningful way to caculate this "5ht2b safety ratio" would be: log(5ht2a)/log(5ht2b) because the closer you get to 0, the more signifigant small variations are. What do you think of this metric? Solipsis?

or maybe: sqrt(5ht2a)/sqrt(5ht2b) is better.
edit: yeah using square root gives the most sensible values.

My safety list looks like this:
(low numbers are "safer", defined as strong 5ht2a agonism compared to 5ht2b)
NSFW:
Compound: sqrt(h5t2b)/sqrt(ht2a2a)
LSD: 0.61
DOI: 0.70
5-MeO-DMT: 0.72
cis-2a: 0.82
SS-2c: 0.84
DOET: 0.97
2C-E: 1.32
lisuride: 1.36
2C-B: 1.43
RR-2b: 1.49
TMA-2: 1.95
4C-T-2: 2.2
DOB: 2.4
2C-T-2: 2.6
5-MeO-MIPT: 2.8
2C-B-fly:3.6
DMT: 4.6
6-F-DMT: 5.4
Aleph-2: 6.1
DOM: 6.6
MEM: 7.8
DPT: 7.8
Psilocin: 8.5
MDA: N/A
MDMA: N/A
Mescaline: N/A
DIPT: N/A
5-MeO-DIPT: N/A
TMA: N/A
5-MeO-TMT: N/A
Ibogaine: N/A


Interesting that some of the compounds on this list are in a very different order from Kaleidas. Show how these different studies, and different methodologies can end up with different results. Psilocin in particular.

The N/A ones were out of range of measurement in the study, or incomplete data.

Did you see the response I gave in the super long post before? I explained a little bit about how I calculated my list. This is the main chunk of it again:

"As for how the list itself was made, I know you might not be able to see the full versions of all of those studies right now, but look at least at the last one which should be the full version in HTML form. If you scroll down to the binding data, you can see that they tested many receptors, but specifically for 5-HT2A they tested for receptor binding Ki, activation potency EC50, and activation efficacy %, whereas for 5-HT2B they only tested for the last two of those. The data included in all three of the studies is like this, so given that the activation potency EC50 was the best equivalency I could get that was what I used, I just divided the 5-HT2B values by the 5-HT2A values. It would be nice to have direct binding Ki too, but I'll take what I can get. Something I'd consider an important takeaway from this though is that the list probably shouldn't be considered completely exact in its distribution of individual drugs, but the relative flow of different chemical classes and certain outliers probably do have some merit."

I am familiar with the spreadsheet you are talking about as well, it can be found here in the supporting information: Psychedelics and the Human Receptorome.

It is interesting that some of our values are so different, but, going back to my explanation above, the thing is that we actually aren't even measuring the same data, as mine is about activation potency EC50, or the amount of the molecule required to produce half of its maximal activation of the receptor, whereas yours is measuring binding affinity Ki, so just the amount required to bind there at all. While these often do line up relatively well for certain drugs, they often don't as well. For instance, like I said the studies I used for my list don't have binding affinity values for 5-HT2B, but they do for 5-HT2A, so let me show some equivalency. Following is a list of the basic 2Cs, mescaline, LSD, and the tryptamines from before, ordered first by binding affinity and second by activation potency at 5-HT2A, all in μM.

Code:
Binding Affinity

2C-I        0.0035
LSD            0.0042
2C-T-7        0.0065
2C-P        0.0081
2C-B        0.0086
2C-T-2        0.0090
2C-E        0.0105
2C-C        0.0130
2C-T-4        0.0279
2C-D        0.0324
5-MeO-AMT    0.034
Psilocin    0.049
4-HO-MET    0.057
5-MeO-MiPT    0.163
DMT            0.237
4-HO-DiPT    0.728
DiPT        1.2
Mescaline    6.3

Activation Potency

5-MeO-AMT    0.002
5-MeO-MiPT    0.023
4-HO-MET    0.037
2C-I        0.06
DMT            0.076
2C-B        0.08
2C-T-2        0.08
2C-P        0.09
4-HO-DiPT    0.093
2C-E        0.11
2C-T-7        0.13
2C-C        0.20
2C-T-4        0.22
DiPT        0.240
LSD            0.26
2C-D        0.35
Psilocin    0.721
Mescaline    10

As you can see, while some parts of the lists are similar, others are quite different. Particularly notably, psilocin has relatively high binding affinity for a tryptamine, and even close to the range of the 2Cs, but very low activation potency, being inferior to all but mescaline in this way. So, one explanation for the discrepancies we've found between our lists that I could give, given that psilocin appears to have very low activation potency at 5-HT2B by my list, but it appears to have very high binding affinity by yours. It could be quite possible that even though it binds there easily it simply doesn't activate it much at all, and therefore might actually not really pose any danger in this way despite that. I think this kind of relationship may also be suggested, for instance, by the fact that while most synthetic tryptamines seem to have relatively high efficacy at these receptors, psilocin only has 16% at 5-HT2A. They didn't test it at 5-HT2B, but if it is similarly weak at that site, it could possibly explain this in the sense that it may just take very high doses to activate the receptors to any significant degree once its bound.

Nonetheless, psilocin is clearly an active psychedelic in doses similar to other tryptamines, so it needs to be considered that the efficacy pathway they tested may not be the only one involved in psychedelic effects through 5-HT2A, and likewise the one they tested for 5-HT2B may or may not be related at all to their heart valve effects, or to the empathogenic effects, or it could be one but not the other. It just seems nearly impossible to say at this point. I do believe that both our lists likely have their own form of merit though, and must likely be considered together along with many others to get a full image of these substances' activity. Something I do find quite tantalizing about yours, for example, is that 5-MeO-MiPT did indeed fall between 5-MeO-DMT and 5-MeO-DiPT in 5-HT2B binding as I was suspecting it might from the other list despite its low activation potency compared to non-5-substituted tryptamines.

I'm honestly not too familiar with the kinds of charts you're trying to plot, like I know I learned that stuff in school but I haven't thought it much since then, and mine was clearly just very basic math. Can you give me another simple real world example to help explain why plotting them that way is best?
 
Solipsis said:
idk sounds good man

Uh how about (1/(5ht2a^x)/(1/(5ht2b^x) and play with the exponent a little? logarithmic may be a bit much...

agreed that log is too much, I like your scheme.

Did you see the response I gave in the super long post before? I explained a little bit about how I calculated my list. This is the main chunk of it again:

"As for how the list itself was made, I know you might not be able to see the full versions of all of those studies right now, but look at least at the last one which should be the full version in HTML form. If you scroll down to the binding data, you can see that they tested many receptors, but specifically for 5-HT2A they tested for receptor binding Ki, activation potency EC50, and activation efficacy %, whereas for 5-HT2B they only tested for the last two of those. The data included in all three of the studies is like this, so given that the activation potency EC50 was the best equivalency I could get that was what I used, I just divided the 5-HT2B values by the 5-HT2A values. It would be nice to have direct binding Ki too, but I'll take what I can get. Something I'd consider an important takeaway from this though is that the list probably shouldn't be considered completely exact in its distribution of individual drugs, but the relative flow of different chemical classes and certain outliers probably do have some merit."

Cheers.

I think the numbers you are looking at give more meaningful insight for this question of 5ht2b safety - activation potency basically looks at how effective the drug is at exciting that receptor right? Whereas the numbers I'm looking at are just binding efficiency, so like you said, a drug could bind to the site easily, but not necessarily be activating that neuron.


I'm honestly not too familiar with the kinds of charts you're trying to plot, like I know I learned that stuff in school but I haven't thought it much since then, and mine was clearly just very basic math. Can you give me another simple real world example to help explain why plotting them that way is best?

What I'm trying to do with these different schemes like taking the square root of the binding affinity Ki is to try to compensate for the non-linear nature of these Ki values. But when you divide one number by the other, it more-or-less compensates for this non-linear scale, so I might just be overthinking it. Hmm...

This paper looks relevant to the discussion: Cardiovascular toxicity of novel psychoactive drugs: Lessons from the past. Haven't read it yet, sticking it here so I can come back to it, as much as to share.
 
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I think I will be giving the 5me away. I like 5 apb. Looking foward forward to a 5/6apb combo soon. Prolly add in some DPT :-)
 
I've got a quick question for anyone who has used any research chemical base tryptamines.... Do you have any experience vaporizing them in a GVG like DMT?

Cheers.

I think the numbers you are looking at give more meaningful insight for this question of 5ht2b safety - activation potency basically looks at how effective the drug is at exciting that receptor right? Whereas the numbers I'm looking at are just binding efficiency, so like you said, a drug could bind to the site easily, but not necessarily be activating that neuron.

Pretty much yeah, though I think it's also quite important to remember that the activation potency measures a drug's individual 50% of its maximum efficacy, the significance of that being again for instance you've got psilocin with 16% at 5-HT2A, or DiPT with 101% by the same test. So, even though activation potency probably does give a better image than receptor binding when considered alone, it's still pretty important to remember that they're not all being measured on the exact same scale even with it, so it just comes back to needing several different lists at once to fully grasp what's going on.

The most frustrating part about the studies I used is that, again, they measured all three for 5-HT2A, and then they only measured receptor binding for 5-HT1A, 5-HT2C, adrenergic, dopamine, histamine, and trace amine receptors... and then they only measured activation potency and efficacy at 5-HT2B. WHY in the world could they not have measured binding affinity there too? 8(

What I'm trying to do with these different schemes like taking the square root of the binding affinity Ki is to try to compensate for the non-linear nature of these Ki values. But when you divide one number by the other, it more-or-less compensates for this non-linear scale, so I might just be overthinking it. Hmm...

Alright, I think I get what you're saying.... I'm wondering, have you seen a scheme like that used in receptor binding studies before? I pretty much just went with the basic math because I've seen ratios like that before, and a couple of the ones I used even have separate categories for 5-HT1A/5-HT2A and 5-HT2C/5-HT2A or that kind of thing, so I just defaulted to that. I would be open to other methods too though, I have no formal education in these things so I'm open to the idea that I have no clue what would work best.

This paper looks relevant to the discussion: Cardiovascular toxicity of novel psychoactive drugs: Lessons from the past. Haven't read it yet, sticking it here so I can come back to it, as much as to share.

Awesome, thanks for the link! :D I haven't checked it out yet but I'll definitely take a look after I run some errands.
 
Ah, that "Recepterome" paper is one of the contemporary classics and has a couple of my favorite people as co authors <3 Good stuff. I like making infographics and stuff so maybe I will put my hand to some of the data.

some infographics I've done in the past:

CTTs_rfWEAAy8nd.png

CTTtFUyWUAA1sC_.png



CTTtTIuXAAAvqJ-.png


and for fun

NSFW:

CTTrrC1WcAAuvLK.png

CTTr1DWWwAAbL0A.jpg



but lets us not forget,

trollvalerone.png
 
Since when did this thread become the Neuroscience forum? LOL I thought it was meant for swirly talk not hard science.

Just kidding, Science On, brethren. I'll try to keep up.
 
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