Shulgin on 2C-I in Buy a Ticket, Take a Ride

Alexander Shulgin is an American pharmacologist and drug developer and a personal hero of mine. When it comes to writing about these subjective experiences of psychedelic drugs, Shulgin is a particularly talented and experienced writer.

Shulgin is credited with introducing MDMA ("ecstasy") to psychologists in the late 1970s for psychopharmaceutical use. He discovered, synthesized, and bioassayed over 230 psychoactive compounds, and evaluated them for their psychedelic and/or entactogenic potential. -Wiki.

PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story is his book of over 150 analogs to MDMA and mescaline. I am guessing that "analog" only means there is some similarity in the chemical structure because I know the experiences can differ greatly.

Following is quoted from PiHKAL #33: 2C-I.

Interestingly enough, the first report is from someone who didn't ingest any substances, but experiences a "contact high" from socializing with a group of people on the drug. This is not a substance that is smoked like marijuana, when actually consuming the drug in contact high situation is difficult but plausible.

in about five minutes after I arrived at your place, and absorbed the ambiance of the folks who had actually imbibed the material. My level lasted about four hours and came down at about the same time as did the others.

Next report is from a lower dose:

(with 15 mg) Comfortable onset. Most notable are the visuals, patterning like 2C-B (Persian carpet type), very colorful and active. Much more balanced emotional character, but still no feeling of insight, revelation, or progress toward the true meaning of the universe. And at 5 1/2 hours drop-off very abrupt, then gentle decline. I would like to investigate museum levels.

Museum level high is part of Shulgin's excellent jargon. The idea is, a calm individual psychedelics is probably spacing out and staring blankly while fascinated, but this is relatively inconspicuous at a museum. The museum level high deals with the question, how do I dose so I can enjoy the substance publicly without drawing attention to myself?

Amphetamines in general can cause conversational stimulation, although I am especially drawn to psychedelic amphetamines for the emotional clarity they bring:

(with 16 mg) However, my conversations were extremely clear and insightful. The degree of honesty was incredible. I was not afraid to say anything to anyone. Felt really good about myself. Very centered, in fact. A bit tired at day's end. Early bedtime.

(with 20 mg) I think there is slightly less than full immersion in the sensual, with this material, compared with 2C-B, but I suspect it's more a matter of getting used to the language of 2C-I and the feelings--getting tuned to a slightly different frequency, really-- rather than that the material is less sensual or less easy to use sensually. Just different frequency, and we are very, very used to 2C-B.

Some comments providing clarity on the closeness of 2C-I to an analog called 2C-B. (I believe the latter is more popular, perhaps because it was a personal favorite of Shulgin)

EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: The frequent comparisons between 2C-I and 2C-B stem, without doubt, from a bit of chemical suggestion. The two compounds have structures that are truly analogous, in technical terms. In one, there is a strategically located iodine atom, and in the other, an identically placed bromine atom. These are directly above and below one-another in the periodic table. And what is particularly maddening to the synthetic diddler, is that they cannot be lengthened, or shortened, or squooshed around in any way. You can't make a longer and narrower version of a bromine atom, as you can do with, say, a butyl group. You've got what you've got, like it or not. No subtle variations.

Last updated January 30, 2014