DOSE:

3 hits

oral

Unknown

(blotter / tab)

BODY WEIGHT:

130 lb

A little background: I am a 26 year old male, in apparent good health. I do smoke tobacco (cigarettes), as well as drink moderately. I am also a daily user of cannabis. I have extensive experience in altered states, having taken numerous large doses of LSD and mushrooms (up to 10 grams), along with isolated experiences with Datura (never again), 5-MeO-DMT, and Salvia. My use of psychedelics probably started like most others, out of curiosity and a desire to “trip out”, and “see crazy things”. Those juvenile desires quickly faded as I found psychedelics to have a profoundly positive influence on my life, rekindling my spirituality, and allowing me to work out personal issues in ways I never could before. I have had my fair share of difficult experiences, but have always been able to hold things together, and learn something from the trip after I’d had time to integrate. Like many “psychonauts”, I have poured through the pages of PIHKAL and TIHKAL many, many times throughout the years, reading and re-reading the Shulgins’ experiences with a myriad of substances I figured I’d never have the chance to experience myself. Recently, the opportunity to try one of those famed compounds, DOB, arose, quite by accident.

A close friend of mine recently re-located to the Bay Area. Perhaps two weeks ago (early Feb 2009), he contacted me to let me know he’d run across some LSD blotter, and asked if I would like some. Never the one to pass up on some LSD (nice to have around for a rainy day), I told him I’d take 20 hits. On a Friday, he lets me know that the LSD is on its way. On Saturday, he calls to tell me about his experience with the “acid”. “Dude, this stuff was not acid. We (him and his girlfriend) took some last night, and we’re still tripping!”, this being some 20 hours post-dose for them. Immediately I stated “It’s DOB”.

At this point, this conclusion was perhaps premature, but as he informed me about the bitter taste of the blotter, the unusually long onset (~3.5 hours for him), and the very long duration, I became more and more convinced that this is what he’d actually sent me. Some research later showed that DOB has been showing up as LSD in the Bay Area in the recent past. While unfortunate, this probably makes sense. DOB is likely easier to make than LSD these days, and since it’s one of the few compounds that can convincingly be sold as LSD (due to its similar character, and potency allowing it to be sold on identical vehicles like blotter), it can act as a substitute in the LSD market. In fact, as an aside, I was thoroughly convinced that this very same friend has unknowingly procured some DOB (sold as LSD) a few years ago. His description then of the “acid” he took was very similar to the one he was giving me now, only then, he was unwilling to accept it as being anything other than LSD, much as I tried to convince him otherwise. I myself procured a single hit of this “acid” back then, but instead of assaying it alone, I foolishly took it with two gel tabs that I knew were LSD. Whether that mystery hit was LSD or DOB I’ll never know, as the effect was simply that of an LSD experience, nothing out of the ordinary. It may be though that it was just a low dose of DOB, and the acid simply masked it.

Anyway, back to current day. There was nothing I could do about the substance arriving to me, though it was not what I’d thought I’d be purchasing. However, being that I had wanted to try DOB for some time, I didn’t feel particularly bad about the bait and switch (I’m not implying that my friend tricked me, as he was duped into thinking it was something it was not as well). The blotter arrived a few days later, and I waited until yesterday (Friday, Feb 20th, 2009) before the opportunity presented itself to sample this compound. I often times prefer to trip alone, and while I would NEVER recommend that someone take a powerful psychoactive substance (especially one they were not familiar with) without a sober sitter, I feel confident in my abilities to handle my mind alone, and in any case, I wasn’t going to be taking any “heroic” doses. At approximately 4:30 PM, I consumed 3 tabs of the blotter. My friend had previously taken 4 hits with no real issues, so I figured I’d be playing it safe with 3. There was a bitter, chemical taste (again, strongly hinting this was not LSD), but it was not overly repulsive. I knew I had a while before it would kick in, so I did some tidying up, menial chores, and tried to mentally prepare myself for what I expected to be a fairly long experience. I had some issues in particular I wanted to focus on, and wanted to make sure they were investigated during the experience.

At around T+1:30, I was receiving my first alerts, mostly a jittery surge of energy through my body. I felt cold, as I normally do on psychedelics, and lay down on the couch to watch some TV. At this point, I smoked some cannabis, which I’d held off on doing until I could feel the effects of the DOB creep in. Over the next hour and a half (T+3:00), the effects built, developing a visual character along with the stimulatory effects. The visuals were similar to a low dose of LSD (1 hit or so), but not as patterned or geometric , almost an intermediate between the earthy-ness of mushrooms and the mechanical nature of LSD. Closed eyed visuals were intense and had a unique character to them, though describing exactly how they were unique would be an effort in futility. My Bay Area friend called to check in on me, and I let him know things were developing nicely.

At around T+4:00, I became aware of an uncomfortable sensation in my right leg. It was not painful, or anything of the sort, but it felt different. I had researched the effects of DOB quite extensively prior to taking this, and was well aware of the reports of severe vasoconstriction in the extremities in overdose situations. This was in the back of my mind, and was a mild cause of concern at the time. However, I wasn’t overly worried at this point. However, the feeling in my leg did not dissipate. I can’t say it was necessarily getting worse, but I was definitely becoming more aware of it. I tried massaging my leg, extending it, walking around, etc., but the feeling of a general lack of circulation to it persisted. Needless to say, my growing concern was causing some severe psychic unease as well. At times, it was difficult to not “freak out”, and I felt myself at the precipice of a panic attack on several occasions. I briefly entertained the thought of calling the paramedics, realizing I’d have to flush the blotter and remove any other paraphernalia from my apartment before doing so. I avoided the urge to dial 911 (whether this was wise or not is left to the reader to decide) and decided to ride things out.

To essentially make a long story short, as I write this at exactly T+22:00, my leg is not completely feeling “normal”. There is no discoloration, loss of sensation, or anything else that would lead me to believe that I’ve suffered some permanent damage (at this point), however it is somewhat disconcerting that the feeling persists. LSD and psilocybin have a long history of safe (physiologically speaking) use, and within their wide therapeutic dose range, one can be fairly certain that any strange body feelings can be attributed to the psychosomatic nature of the drug. With the knowledge of DOB's vasoconstrictive properties, I cannot be convinced that this sensation was all in my head. The mental effects of the DOB have all but dissipated at this point, yet the feeling of unease in my leg persists.

After this experience, I would say it is HIGHLY unlikely I will be doing DOB again. From a qualitative point of view, I didn’t find the experience to be that rewarding. While my mind was opened, the experience lacked the introspection that even low doses of LSD provide me, and I didn’t feel I accomplished anything I set out to focus on in this trip. Most of this likely has to do with the anxiety my leg issues caused, but even if that were not the case, I don’t think I would have found too much value in this compound. Additionally, it is a bit too long-lived for me. Combined with what I perceive to be a negative physiological effect of the drug itself, and the stars are just not lined up for me and DOB.

I would STRONGLY advise any potential DOB users to be aware of how their body is feeling throughout the trip, especially in the extremities. Don’t freak yourself out, but also don’t automatically attribute any uncomfortable sensations in these regions as purely “in your head”. I am well aware that this type of thing does not appear to be an issue in normal doses of DOB, but each individual is different, and we can all react differently to a given substance. I have absolutely no way of quantifying how much DOB was on those 3 blotters, but based on the mental effects, I’d say it’s fairly impossible that I reached any overdose amounts. Tread with caution on this one folks...

---------------------
This is an addendum:

As noted in my earlier report, I had some issues with strange sensations in my leg during my DOB experience that caused some concern for me. I'm happy to report that as of February 22, 2009, my leg feels completely normal and there are no signs of damage caused by vasoconstriction, or any other physiological event.

Some additional notes concerning the experience that were not mentioned in my initial report:

I was able to eat and sleep throughout the duration of the experience (which totaled a full 30 hours), though sleep was sporadic and I only had one meal during the experience (~T+5:00). Sleep was intermittent (first 'nap' occurred at ~T+11:00), and was noteworthy in that time ceased to move during this time. For example, at T+11:00, I lay down on my couch and closed my eyes. During this time, I did not feel as if I were asleep (more of being in a relaxed, resting state), though I cannot recount what exactly I felt or thought of during this time. After an experientially short period of time (what seemed to be perhaps 15 minutes or so), I arose to get a glass of water. I was shocked to see that exactly 3 hours had passed!

Of another note was what I perceive to be the effect of DOB on my dream states. I am normally a very vivid dreamer, with fairly decent recollection of my dreams in the morning. While sleeping on DOB, I have absolutely NO recollection of what I dreamed, and suspect that I may not have actually dreamed at all. This effect lasted even after I had completely come down (~T+30:00), and went to sleep several hours later. In the morning following the end of the trip, I could not remember even the slightest hint of what I may have dreamed during my sleep. This effect lasted into the next night's sleep. Pleasantly, the next night's sleep session (2 full days after cessation of effects), I had extremely vivid dreams, with greater than normal retention of them the following morning.

Finally, I must confess that while I strongly suspect that this compound was DOB based on onset, duration, and qualitative effects of the experience, it may have been one of the other potent DO(X) compounds (DOI, DOC). From my research, it appears DOI and DOC are less common on the underground market, thus my identification of the compound in question as DOB.

Exp Year: 2009	ExpID: 77071
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 27, 2009	Views: 18,309
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Unknown (120), DOB (19) : Health Problems (27), What Was in That? (26), General (1), Alone (16)