RCs Phenibut - Large Crystals vs Fine Crystals vs 'Old School' Crystals

[Seattle_Stranger]

Hi all. This has been covered in the past loosely, but from what I've read this is a constant evolving thing. I was wondering what folks have been experiencing as of recent.

A couple years ago, I don't remember exactly when, I bought some Phenibut from a popular Lift website. I tried it once, I think I took too much and didn't like it, so I shelved it. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I started getting into nootropics again. I pulled out my old phenibut and decided to give it another more cautious go. After a couple under-doses, I finally hit the window and realized what all the hype is about! I dosed up a couple more times after that, spread out by a few days, and was starting to be able to appreciate and recognize the effects.

Now that I'm almost all out, I have noticed there are "phenibut - large crystals" and "phenibut - fine crystals" available to order now. Looking at the phenibut I currently have, I'd say it looks almost identical to sugar. I read a bit about the differences, and aside from physical appearance, it seems like it doesn't matter much in terms of effects, so I went with the large crystals in hopes it would be similar to the one I have. When it arrived, the crystals are WAY different, very big almost like tiny beads, think about the beads inside an Adderall capsule, about that big but just crystals instead of little balls. This morning I just capped up ~1.3g and went down the hatch, first time trying this phenibut after a ~3 day washout from the other stuff, that was ~2hrs ago.

Normally this wouldn't matter much, but I read something about there being a change in phenibut's overall quality and effects over the years, likely due to a new non-Russian source, and started to become noticed when these alternate crystal types started coming onto the market. The sugar-like phenibut (which I'm assuming is what the 'old school' phenibut is that I read about) seems to produce the effects I read about, are very desirable and clean and not sedating, whereas some folks are reporting dirty, sedating, non-nootropic effects from the 'new' phenibut.

Can anyone offer some insight? Anyone have some subjective experience with the different kinds?

Thanks in advance!

 

[pinpoint]

It's so hard to judge the actual quality of Phenibut based on anecdotal reports since people don't take in to account the drug's rapid tolerance profile. Plus once the drug loses it's magic, it never returns.

 

[sekio]

Crystal size/appearance means absolutely nothing, pharmacologically speaking.

 

[Seattle_Stranger]

Crystal size/appearance means absolutely nothing, pharmacologically speaking.

Totally understood, this should be the case. I've been reading reports of people experiencing "different effects" from the different appearances. The original source did change (was Russian, now is Chinese I believe), and if the appearance is different that means something was done differently and by a different chemist, potentially using a whole new formula (less expensive I would assume). Then again, as mentioned above, effects are relative and subjective and can almost never be properly measured. Phenibut strikes me as one of those substances where as soon as you are able to understand and recognize the effects, tolerance has already built too high to replicate them reliably. Perhaps this is one of those "once in a blue moon" occasional treats, and not a really frequently useful nootropic anxiolytic, even on a 1-2x a week basis. Maybe once a month!

I waited a couple days, and I just tried a ~1.5g dose of the new stuff this morning, let's see what happens.

 

[sekio]

Just because you're experiencing different effects from a new batch does not mean it's different material. Humans are quite gullible.

I've seen cases where, for instance, two batches of MXE were reported to cause different 'trips' and had slightly different appearances but in reality both were analytically pure on GCMS. It just goes to show that set & setting & expectations play a huge role in your experience.