April 1, 2002 Under the radar By Jenny Montgomery | Associate Editor jemontgo@iupui.edu (File photo) California chemist Alexander Shulgin created T-7, a hallucinogen federal officials are considering for emergency scheduling as illegal. Fast facts about T-7 • Technically known as a phenethylamine, T-7, a chemical compound, produces results similar to those of LSD or Ecstasy. • While T-7 is not classified as an illegal drug, people who possess or sell the substance can be prosecuted under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. • The drug’s creator lists the typical dosage as 10 to 30 milligrams, which produces effects for eight to 12 hours. • DEA plans emergency illegalization of T-7, a hallucinogen for sale online. This mostly unknown and untested homespun chemical concoction has connections to Indiana. He prefers to be known only as “morninggloryseed.” He’s 25 years old and is working toward a double major in psychology and sociology at Maryville University in St. Louis. In his free time, he enjoys experimenting with hallucinogens but says he has never tried harder drugs like cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine. After learning about a hallucinogenic compound called 2C-T-7, or T-7 for short, from a book called “Pihkal,” the young man took to the Internet to find out more – like any smart student would. Once online, he was able to buy the homespun chemical compound, which federal drug regulators have yet to deem illegal despite two related fatalities reported since 2000. He rated his first time taking T-7 as positive. “I was very lucky because the dose was almost too much to handle, and had I not been familiar with altered states, I would have been in trouble,” he told The Sagamore. But it wasn’t just familiarity that prevented him from having a bad experience – he had done his homework and knew that he should only take T-7 orally. “Most people that use T-7 are morons,” he said. “If they weren’t, they wouldn’t snort it.” An online clearinghouse of drug information, Erowid.org warns about the potential dangers of research chemicals: “When you take a research chemical, you are stepping out into the unknown, and you could be the unfortunate person to discover a new drug’s lethal dose.” That’s what happened to Josh Robbins. The January issue of Rolling Stone magazine reported that the 17-year-old Robbins died last April after snorting 35 milligrams of T-7. But Robbins had taken other drugs the night of his death. Erowid.org also reported that a 20-year-old man in Oklahoma died two years ago after snorting 35 milligrams of T-7. The Sagamore was unable to confirm the cause of that death. What it is, what it does T-7 is classified as a phenethylamine, a substance naturally occurring in plants, animals and the human body. Akin to a stimulant, phenethylamines can be transformed into hallucinogenic compounds by altering the chemical structure. Such is the case with T-7. Currently, T-7 is not illegal, but it soon may be. A spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Agency told The Sagamore last week about a pending emergency measure to make the substance temporarily illegal for one year, during which time a formal evaluation would be conducted. Working with the Food and Drug Administration, the DEA has information that indicates T-7 carries with it a potential for abuse. One of the compound’s cousins – 2C-B – is already on the list of controlled substances, and California chemist Alexander Shulgin, co-author of “Pihkal,” invented both drugs. It may surprise some to know that Shulgin, as well as Internet buyers of T-7, have connections in Indiana. A Purdue professor wrote the foreword to Shulgin’s book, and a man in Elizabethtown, Ind., is facing federal drug-related fraud charges for selling the compound online. With the drought of information regarding T-7, Shulgin is clearly the authority on what can happen if someone takes the chemical, and has reported his experience with the batches of T-7 he cooked up in his own lab. After taking 20 milligrams of the substance, he experienced periods of nausea, visual distortion, extreme muscle tightness, as well as a cathartic feeling of “letting go.” With 30 milligrams, he reported seeing hallucinations with his eyes closed. Shulgin lists the appropriate dosage at 10 to 30 milligrams, which lasts eight to 12 hours, but he said many people have found 10 milligrams is enough to produce an experience similar to his. David E. Nichols, professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at Purdue University, is a pioneer in laboratory testing of the popular club drug Ecstasy. T-7 is probably more closely related to Ecstasy than to other hallucinogens like LSD, said Nichols. Shulgin, who is in his late 70s, comes from an old school of thought that investigated how hallucinogens affect consciousness, which in the 1960s was a more acceptable academic discipline than it is today, Nichols said. Shulgin has tested chemicals on himself, his wife and friends for nearly four decades. All of the compounds he has created, as well as his personal experiences and the formulas for each compound, are published in his book, “Pih- kal.” Critics would say publishing the formulas is irresponsible because young people might be able to manufacture the chemical. “If someone has done something … and it’s their life’s work, do you just not publish it?” Nichols asked. The Purdue professor said creating T-7 would probably require at least some familiarity with working in an organic chemistry laboratory, and most likely, some college chemistry courses, but a “sophisticated facility” wouldn’t be necessary. T-7 online Until recently, T-7 could be purchased online from several sources, including JLF Poison- ous Non-Consumables, which is based in Elizabethtown, Ind. But after law enforcement officials jailed the company’s proprietor, Mark Niemoeller, the product was no longer offered. Niemoeller was released from the Marion County jail on the condition he stop selling several products, including T-7. Reporters at The Sagamore encountered a Web site that claimed to sell T-7 for $120 per 100 milligrams. But the site said the product wouldn’t be available after the current 14.1-gram stock is sold. Nichols wonders if someone made a large batch of T-7, resulting in a one-time limited supply that may soon be exhausted. “This is something that might be a flash in the pan,” he said. Shrouded in mystery Snippets of information about T-7 are scattered throughout cyberspace, but the most information comes from people who have used the compound. And while the majority of first-hand accounts praise T-7’s effects, the Web sites posting reports or hosting discussions on the topic usually feature a disclaimer that the information may not be entirely accurate. Indiana law enforcement officials are somewhat baffled by what T-7 is and who the primary users are. Sid Newton, a detective with the state police drug enforcement division, knows about club drugs like Ecstasy, but he said most of what he has learned about T-7 has been via the media, like the Rolling Stone article about Josh Robbins. According to Rolling Stone, on the night of his death, Robbins had consumed Ecstasy, nitrous oxide and a minithin – a small over-the-counter pill containing the stimulant ephedrine and guaifenesin, an expectorant. Nichols suspects Robbins’ death was the result of multiple drug use, explaining that the body simply shuts down when too many drugs accumulate in the bloodstream. “The only thing I can figure out is that people want to see how high they can get,” Nichols said. And snorting a drug is different than taking it orally, Nichols added. A standard oral dose of 10 milligrams, when snorted, is more like 20 or 30 because the drug is absorbed more rapidly. And while he said T-7 is not particularly toxic as far as he knows, snorting it would create a greater possibility for cardiovascular side effects, such as the constriction of blood vessels. “If you take something orally, you’ve got a lot more time to get intervention,” Nichols said. Making it illegal The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 specifies five categories, or schedules, of illegal drugs. Schedule I drugs are defined as having no acceptable medical use, a high potential for abuse and safety risks. And if the DEA is successful in its emergency scheduling of T-7, it will be identified as an illicit drug for one year while formal scheduling procedures are conducted. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, DEA officials would not predict when T-7 might be temporarily classified as Schedule I. In 1986, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act specified that substances that are not illegal but are closely related to Schedule I or II drugs would be classified as analogues; T-7 is an analogue of 2C-B, a Schedule I drug. Moving T-7 to scheduled status would eliminate the necessity to define it in the courtroom on a case-by-case basis. Newton said, under federal law, penalties for possessing or dealing an analogue are the same as penalties for a Schedule I substance. But, Newton said, when someone is being tried for an offense involving an analogue, prosecutors must prove – through testimony from chemists – that the substance in question is, in fact, an analogue of an illegal drug. Unlike more well-known, illegal drugs, T-7 doesn’t seem to be a large-scale craze – at least not yet. According to the anonymous student in St. Louis, T-7 is not being peddled in dark alleys. And while he thinks young people are using it, the self-described “neo-hippie” thinks the label of “club drug” is misleading. He added that taking any more than 10 milligrams of T-7 is unwise, and that “club kids” may be ill prepared to experiment with the compound. “Very few people bother to educate themselves of what they are putting into their bodies,” he told The Sagamore. As an example, he cited that testing kits, which cost roughly $35 online, allow people to test up to 200 Ecstasy pills to determine what the pills actually contain. But few people bother to do so, he said. Because little is known about T-7, and its effects vary from person to person, he says it isn’t a good idea to combine it with other substances – although he has. “I am one of those people who test the unknown, within reason and based on an educated decision,” he said. “I don’t recommend people do what I do.” To contact Jenny Montgomery, send an e-mail to jemontgo@iupui.edu or call 317-274-3455. To find out more information about 2-C-T-7, log onto www.erowid.org