2C What?

Jesse had been looking forward to an epic live show of psychedelic projections and pumping beats. But when he couldn’t get 2C-B he decided to take the mystery powder he was offered instead.

I had been using party drugs for a few years when I had my big bad trip. Being a young drug enthusiast, I always paid strict attention to the advice in drug education classes. I never took cocktails of different drugs. I never took more of a drug out of impatience because the first dose hadn’t hit me yet. I bought my drugs through the same trusted source. All in all, I was a smart drug user, at least until ‘that’ night when I had my all-too-vivid trip. I had tickets to see a Brazilian electronic artist who had a 3D projection live show at the Sydney Opera House. With a show like that, with spectacular visuals promised, my course was set: I was going to get psychedelics.

All my usual dealers were unavailable, but I arranged to get some 2C-B through my brother, as I had on a few occasions in the past. Keen observers will note that I had already broken a rule. He may have been my brother, but he wasn’t my usual source, so I had no idea what I would end up with.

On the night of the gig, my brother and friends, Amy and Jodie, arrived at my house for pre-drinks. Instead of pills, my brother produced 4 tiny satty bags. The powder inside looked kinda like yellowish cocaine. He said there was trouble getting the usual stuff from his dealer, and that this stuff was basically the same — but he did warn me it was meant to be much stronger. It was definitely 2C-SOMETHING but whether it was 2C-E or 2C-I, nobody was sure. It all felt a bit off. The colour and texture of the drugs was a bit suspicious, but we figured in this day and age, the reality is that you never REALLY know where your drugs are coming from. So, we decided to roll with it.

We all had a few beers, then we all did half a bag each and left for the Opera House. My first mistake was accepting mystery psychedelics — I knew I shouldn’t take a drug if I didn’t know what it was. But I made my second mistake right then and there — I took the rest of the baggy with me. A few beers were drunk on the way — then we ran into a friend before the gig who had cocaine, so I did a line of that, too. Another ingredient to the drug cocktail.

Three hours had passed since I had taken the 2C-B by the time the Opera House staff asked us to proceed inside and I still wasn’t feeling much of the effects of the psychedelics. So I decided to rack (snort) the rest of my bag. That decision was definitely misplaced confidence spurred by all the pre-drinks.

So now I was breaking all the harm reduction advice I’d ever gotten and breaking all the rules I had ever put in place. I was cocktailing drugs — alcohol, cocaine and 2C-something; taking drugs from an unknown source; and taking more when I hadn’t felt the first dose hit. But, hey? I had been in similar situations before, nothing had gone wrong then, so surely I would be fine. In fact, I couldn’t imagine a universe where I couldn’t ‘handle my drugs’!

I was wrong. I spent the majority of the show curled into a ball on my seat while terrifying shapes melted in and out of the heads in the crowd for 2 hours. When the show ended, the drugs hadn’t worn off. It got worse rather than better. Everyone wanted to go for more beers but I made it clear I wasn’t coping. The floor was lava. And so were all the buildings and cars for that matter!

Luckily the Uber that Amy ordered to take me home wasn’t made of lava, but the driver certainly was. I was so glad that she got in that Uber with me, to take care of me. I don’t think I could have made it home without her. Back at my house, Amy tried everything to get me back down to earth. She put on some cartoons to distract and sooth me. But the cartoons I usually liked rocked back and forth between being too fast and too slow for me to comprehend.

I tried smoking weed to calm myself down, but the weed gave me insane visions of huge starscapes and galaxies folding in on themselves. For about an hour, I just paced back and forth in my boxers and my bathrobe, stopping only to repeat the word “HUGE”. Things eventually slowed down and I got to sleep.

Next day, I bought Amy breakfast to say thanks for babysitting me. I’m so grateful to this day that she was there to trip-sit me in my time of need. I won’t forget it. Looking back, I figure I made a fair few elementary school mistakes that night, but to be honest there is only one that I felt was a glaring error. After all, I had previously taken drug cocktails and bought drugs from people who weren’t my usual dealer, and I had been fine. I know there are risks to breaking these safety rules, but I still consider myself a responsible drug user.

But after that night I learnt there are some rules that absolutely should never be broken. I should have listened to my brother when he said these drugs came with a warning. We were not meant to take the whole bag. No matter how obscure the source is, drug dealers will almost always have a piece of advice when it comes to experimental drugs. My regret was not heeding the warning of the dealer and missing one of the coolest live shows I could ever see. Until prohibition is repealed, all we have are each other. We need to be sharing our experiences and info about the risks of the drugs we are taking, and how to manage those risks. And we need to be taking a leaf out of Amy’s book and being there for our friends and peers if something does go wrong.

2C lowdown

2C-x substances like 2C-B, 2C-E, and 2C-I all have varying psychedelic and entactogenic effects.

Entactogens → encourage empathy, emotional communion, oneness, relatedness, emotional openness.

Psychedelics → trigger non-ordinary experiences, altering the way we think, what we see, our sense of time, and our emotions.

2C-x compounds are usually sold as a white powder (in sattie bags or caps) but can be pressed into pills resembling ecstasy. Substances in the 2C-x series vary in their effects and duration.