Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High

by Power, Mike

  But this is not just a question of legality or enforcement. Safety is the more important issue, and for all the professionalism that people like Matthew claim to have fostered in the industry, accidents in this trade can and do happen. When they do, the results can be serious, if not fatal. In 2010, nine customers of his firm were sent packages containing 2C-P – a Shulgin psychedelic active at 8–12 mg. But the bag was mislabelled as buphedrone, a mephedrone variant with a standard dose of around 80–100 mg. A number of customers took it, and overdosed. One of them twice. Their stories follow in the next chapter.

  One site that aims to address the problem of fraudulent or dangerous vendors is SafeOrScam.com. Known as SOS, it is not a place to source research chemicals, or traditional drugs, neither is it a place to sell drugs, or even to talk about them. SOS is an internet drug vendor-review service that tells you whether using a dealer whose details you must already have, is safe, or a scam. The site does not publish any lists, its databases are encrypted, and SOS only gives information on sites you already know the name of. Will vendors deliver the product they advertise, or will they send you a dangerous substitute? Will they rob you of your money? Are they a cover operation for a police sting? The way it does this is neatly collaborative and once more reflects the new primacy of the crowd over the individual.

  Users of the site – which is open, on the surface web, and for its most basic and useful function requires no membership – simply enter the URL of a website selling research chemicals and the results come back with two scores. One is a score between one and ten representing the entire period since the site was first entered on the database, and the other is the average of the scores accumulated over the last thirty days, with the number of votes cast also shown. Click through the ratings and you can also check the online reputation of each of those who voted and judge for yourself if they seem truthful. This reputation system for the site’s users, known as ‘karma’, is accumulated over time in reward for useful posting, and points are deducted for inaccurate or dishonest information. While not foolproof, it is a clever way to ensure that the site is not swamped with shill approvals or gamed by unscrupulous dealers. The site, which is ad-free and baldly but brilliantly coded, has saved people’s lives.

  SOS is in the purest terms nothing more than a network, a platform for information exchange and a virtual gathering place for people who want to share knowledge, for no personal profit. The owner of the site, an American software coder, is an articulate and precisely rational advocate for the free exchange of information, especially around research chemicals and other drugs. The site gets about 10,000 hits a day, and attracts around 150 comments in the threads below each entry. The owner, who calls himself simply Admin, says that comments on the site increased by around sixty per cent in March 2010 compared to the previous month – from 632 to 1,078 – just before the UK banned mephedrone – and plummeted soon after to normal levels. This suggests that many users were stocking up and wanted to ensure they had suppliers that were trustworthy. Visitors to the site and comments there increased five-fold over the following year as the research chemical market grew, he told me.

  Like so many other administrators of drug-related sites, Admin is adamant that his site does not encourage or enable drug use. His views could be read as a de facto manifesto for many involved in the research chemical and online drugs scene, who see themselves primarily as information activists rather than drug-law reform campaigners. Rather than waiting for the law to catch up with the growing number of people who believe that drugs should be legal, and that information should be free, the SOS Admin has simply used information-age tactics to sidestep pre-web laws. He told me:

  I’ve gone to great lengths to prevent people asking for or giving sources for drugs or research chemicals on the site. I’m not opposed to freely available sources from a philosophical perspective, but from a practical, legal perspective it’s not a good idea to make sources widely available. I’ve been involved with research chemicals for approximately five years. I’ve always had a fascination with chemicals and the effect they have on the human body. I don’t think it’s up to the government to judge any person for what they do with their own body in the privacy of their own home. In my opinion, the primary role of the government is to prevent violence. Is the prohibition of a substance absolutely guaranteed to prevent more violence? If the substance is sarin, I think the answer is yes. If the substance is marijuana? Absolutely no. The same goes for cocaine, heroin, 4-AcO-DMT, mephedrone, etc. Information should absolutely, unequivocally be free. It should never, ever be illegal to receive information. It should never, ever be criminal to give information. This is absolutely my most strongly held conviction, and one from which I doubt I will ever stray.

  The biggest change with the research chemical scene is that the amount of information available has increased dramatically. Five years ago, the only information you could access about research chemicals was through sketchy forums and chat rooms from individuals who were unreliable at best. Today, Wikipedia (and the linked references) contain a wealth of information on hundreds of research chemicals. If SOS helps people make informed and successful decisions I will be incredibly glad. That is the entire purpose of the site. What they do after the initial decision is absolutely none of my concern. It doesn’t bother me in the least.

  The site has reviewed 13,560 vendors, and has 3,086 registered users and over 70,000 comments. Given that it is difficult to obtain a referral to the site that allows users fuller access – only full members can post their comments below reviews – that is an enormous conversation. Consider, too, the concept of online participation inequality, or the ‘one per cent rule’, the social media theorem which states that for every person who posts on a forum, generally about ninety-nine other people are viewing that forum and lurking.

  One laboratory in Hong Kong that has a high SOS rating replied to an email I sent them asking what chemicals they sold:

  All products are produced in China and ship from China. Shipping with tracking is free of cost to any destination. Shipping to most countries requires about 3–7 days, and orders normally ship within 5 business days of payment receipt. Payment can be by Liberty Reserve (5% discount), MoneyGram or Western Union (please keep receipt).

  The products which are currently in stock are listed below. JWH-018; JWH-019; JWH-073; JWH-081; JWH-122; JWH-203; JWH-210; JWH-250; A-796,260; AB-001; AKB48; AM-694; AM-1220; AM-1248; AM-2201; AM-2233; RCS-4; CB-13; URB597; URB602; URB754; UR-144; JTE-907; MDA-19; 5-MeO-DMT; 5-MeO-DIPT; 5-MeO-DALT; 2C-B; 2C-C; 2C-D; 2C-E; 2C-H; 2C-I; 2C-P; 2C-T-2; 2C-T-4; 2C-T-7; 25I-NBOMe (NBOMe-2C-I); Methiopropamine (MPA); 2-Fluoroamphetamine (2-FA); 2-Fluoromethamphetamine (2-FMA); 4-Fluoroamphetamine (4-FA); 4-Fluoromethamphetamine (4-FMA); Methylone (bk-MDMA); Ethylone (bk-MDEA); Butylone (bk-MDBD); Eutylone (bk-EBDB); Pentylone (bk-MBDP); Ethcathinone; 4-Methylethcathinone (4-MEC); 4-Ethylmethcathinone (4-EMC); Benzedrone (4-MBC); 3,4-Dimethylmethcathinone (3,4-DMMC); Flephedrone (4-FMC); Buphedrone; Mebuphedrone (4-MeMABP); NEB; Pentedrone; alpha-PPP; MPPP; alpha-PBP; MPBP; alpha-PVP; MDPV; MDAI; 5-IAI; Desoxypipradrol (2-DPMP); Dimethocaine (DMC); Methoxetamine (MXE).

  Available by custom synthesis is 4-AcO-DMT, 4-HO-MET, 4-HO-DET, 4-HO-MPT, 4-HO-MiPT, 4-HO-DiPT, 4-AcO-DiPT, 5-MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, AMT, DPT, DiPT, MET, MiPT, NBOMe-mescaline, 25C-NBOMe, MBDB, 3-FA, 4-methylamphetamine (4-MA), 3-methylamphetamine (3-MA), MMA, IAP, JWH-series, AM-series, URB-series, AB-series and many others.

  Regards,

  [LAB NAME]

  This is the reality of Drugs 2.0. Among that unreadable alphabet soup of drug names there are hallucinogens, stimulants, empathogens and cannabinoids. Working out which of them are legal or which have been outlawed in various countries would require thousands of hours of legal time or case law study.

  This lab is trusted; they deliver what they say they will, and they have no interest in what their customers do with their compounds. The old paths between user and dealer, the small networks of individuals with
a common purpose and even friendship, have now been replaced for some people by a laptop terminal in a net café in west London, Alabama, Kiev, Scunthorpe or Amsterdam communicating with a nameless encrypted email server in Hong Kong.

  And among that plethora of new drugs, as well as fairly benign chemicals, there are others that can kill or injure in seconds if users do not know the right dose. Overlay that fact with this: MixMag’s 2012 survey found that twenty-five per cent of respondents were happy to take what it called ‘mystery white powders’.14

  Notes

  1. www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7945058/

  Ivory-Wave-is-new-Miaow-Miaow.html

  2. ‘2011 Annual Report on the State of the Drugs Problem in Europe: New Drugs and Emerging Trends’; www.emcdda.europa.eu/online/annual-report/2011/new-drugs-and-trends/2

  3. Simon D. Brandt, ‘What Should Be Done about Mephedrone?’, British Medical Journal, 16 June 2010; www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/02/analyses-second-generation-legal-highs-uk-confusing-case-nrg-1

  4. www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/New-legal-high-to-hit-city-streets.htm

  5. www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/

  article-1267582/The-Chinese-laboratories-scientists-work-new-meow-meow.html

  6. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs/drug-law/temporary-class-drug-orders/

  7. The 1977 amendment to the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act outlawed ‘any compound (not being a compound for the time being specified in sub-paragraph (a) above) structurally derived from tryptamine or from a ring-hydroxy tryptamine by substitution at the nitrogen atom of the sidechain with one or more alkyl substituents but no other substituent.’ AMT did not fit that precise definition, so was legal.

  8. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-14064996

  9. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/corporate-publications-strategy/home-office-circulars/circulars-2012/014-2012/

  10. David E. Nichols and Stewart Frescas, ‘Improvements to the Synthesis of Psilocybin and a Facile Method for Preparing the O-Acetyl Prodrug of Psilocin’, Synthesis, No. 6, pp. 935–938 (1999); www.erowid.org/references/texts/show/

  6535docid6064

  11. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb1011/hosb1011?view=Binary

  12. www.mixmag.net/drugssurvey

  13. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/03/27/company-will-not-stop-handling-meow-meow-drug-payments-91466-26119009/

  14. www.mixmag.net/drugssurvey

  * Not his real name.

  Ready-Salted Zombies and a Chemical Panic

  Addiction, overdose or imprisonment are the guaranteed flipsides to any serious drug habit – and it’s proven to be no different with the new drugs created in the last decade.

  In the early days of the online drugs scene, there were a limited number of suppliers, a tiny user group, plenty of legal confusion and a good deal of secrecy and prudence. Even then there were deaths. Only after Operation Web Tryp did this subculture become more widely known, and in the eight years since that legal clampdown in the US, the market has grown exponentially. There has been a new influx of users with scant knowledge of the historical scene that spawned the contemporary one. And even as the user group grows, so too does the number of drugs on offer, and the number of deaths.

  That said, hysterical media coverage of the perceived threats of new drugs and corresponding knee-jerk government action seem to be similarly guaranteed. Newspapers were, for a few months in 2010, peppered daily with howlingly inaccurate reports of the deaths of Meow-crazed youths. But the truth is that there have only been two specific deaths from mephedrone in the UK, and one of those victims was compulsively injecting the drug intravenously.

  John Ramsey believes the picture is more complex than either users or the authorities might admit. ‘Most people take more than one drug and some unfortunately die – when they do, it is usually impossible to say which one was responsible for causing the death. Unfortunately the tendency is to attribute the death to the latest drug and consequently overstate the risk,’ he told me.

  Admin from SOS thinks that the main reason people die from the new designer drugs is a lack of information, and in the US, Europe and the UK that is often true. ‘The current market is insanely negative and dangerous. In the US, at least, the way the Analog Act is worded is incredibly harmful. Specifically, according to that law, analogues of scheduled substances cannot be sold for human consumption,’ he said. He explains that this means no dosage information can be sold along with the chemicals: ‘In the US, the substance is not illegal, and the sale of the substance is not illegal. What’s illegal is the information that is passed along with the sale – so long as the information includes any details on what the substance is and how to use it correctly and safely. This leads to research chemicals being sold unlabelled and without usage guidelines. This single aspect has been responsible for every research chemical-related death that I am aware of. I think that any adult should be able to go to the pharmacy and purchase any chemical they wish. It should come with detailed usage instructions including side effects, interactions and warnings. The pharmacist should be knowledgeable about these chemicals and should dispense advice to the best of their ability.’

  That’s a radical and, some might consider, extreme viewpoint. But would we rather have a scenario where people can buy any chemical they want, from Chinese chemists or branded legal high vendors, with no information on dosage and contraindications and no guarantee of purity? For that is the way things are. Would Admin’s solution cause more or less harm? It is impossible to say until we try it, or until we devise a strategy that might prevent people looking online for drugs.

  Another, more subtle and non-chemical danger is that while the net may offer a community for drug-users, in itself that can soon become an echo chamber, a hall of mirrors that normalizes once-extreme behaviour. One user told me, ‘Of course there are a lot of people deluding themselves that their self-destructive behaviour serves a higher purpose, helps them develop their personality, gain insights or is part of a spiritual path of some kind. Keeping company with a bunch of other out-of-control polytoxicomaniacs bragging about their exploits on the internet doesn’t exactly help them realize that they have a problem. [The] problem is that the research chemical market is a big candy store where everybody is invited to have a go at everything. And some of the stuff offered is really detrimental but too alluring to be left alone.’

  As drug users in Europe were gorging themselves on mephedrone in 2009, the original research chemical scene was bracing itself for a legal clampdown, unhappy at the attention it was now receiving. Then late that year a disturbing series of overdoses shocked even seasoned observers. Mislabelling is perhaps the gravest danger facing research chemical users. If you order one drug with an active dose of 10 mg and receive by accident another drug that is ten times more potent, there’s every chance you will overdose or die.

  On 3 October 2009, a twenty-two-year-old Danish man, Dannie Haupt Hansen, took an 18 mg dose of what he thought was 2C-B-FLY, a potent psychedelic phenethylamine that is an analogue of Shulgin’s 2C-B, which he had ordered from a Chinese lab. Before he tried the drug, Haupt had also been selling it from his website, haupt-rc.com, to customers all over the world. Haupt died of a heart attack, for the drug, in common with many psychedelics and stimulants of this class, is a powerful vasoconstrictor – his heart gave out as it worked to pull the blood through his tightening arteries. But he took the ‘right’ amount – he had researched the drug and its dose online. What had gone wrong?

  As Haupt was overdosing and dying, in California eighteen-year-old Brian Sullivan was nodding his head to the music, tripping with his brother John and his brother’s girlfriend. They too had taken the Danish batch of the drug, ordered online and sent under plain mail to the West Coast of the US in a few days. They too were overdosing. Sullivan died; his brother and girlfriend convulsed, but escaped with their lives. And they too had only taken a small amount –
far below the safety levels they had researched online in trusted forums and in chemistry journals.

  On 5 October, Erowid and Bluelight posted an alert online warning other users that a potentially lethal batch of 2C-B-FLY was circulating worldwide.

  In Barcelona that same day at 5 p.m., a young man was staring at his home-made pizza. The topping of goat’s cheese and tomato suddenly looked like pools of pus and blood. A few hours earlier, he had been weighing some 2C-B-FLY and some other research chemicals he had bought, including some synthetic marijuana compounds and an MDMA analogue. He scooped up a tiny crumb of a white powder that had spilt on the table and wiped it onto his inner lip. He lay down to relax, closed his eyes and put on the Beatles LP Rubber Soul, but was quickly assailed by powerful hallucinations. He didn’t know it, but he too was overdosing. At 5.24 p.m., afraid and overheating, he logged on and fired up a Google search. He hit Erowid and found an emergency posting about a spate of overdoses caused by a dangerous batch of 2C-B-FLY.

  He described his experiences in an Erowid report a week later under the name Joan Miro. ‘My heart dropped when I saw the photo of the same exact bag that was sitting on my desk. I became angry, agitated.’1

  He logged on to Bluelight and begged for help. He was told he had to get to the nearest hospital immediately. His life was saved by the bulletin board – whose posters told him he had a six-hour delay before things worsened dramatically – and the Catalan hospital’s staff, who tranquillized him and monitored his heart rate and temperature.

  Miro said he doesn’t remember much of the next few hours other than fear and panic and guilt over impending and self-induced death, all amplified and distorted by the powerfully psychedelic drug, in a chaotic emergency ward filled with screams. ‘I thought a lot about how this would be such a horrible way to go. Especially for my family and friends. What would it do to them for me to leave them like that? Over something so stupid [and] preventable and – especially – without telling them goodbye and that I loved them. I was determined to walk out of that hospital,’ he wrote. He survived.