DOSE:

2.5 mg

oral

Pharms - Alprazolam

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

72 kg

Mmm…Xanax

I’ve always wanted to try Xanax coz the 2mg bars just looks so sexy. Thus, I decided to go shopping for some Xanax today. It’s a relatively short acting benzodiazepine. Xanax is the same drug that Noelle Bush (the niece of the current United States president George Bush) was arrested for because she tried to pass off a fraudulent prescription [cnn.com]. The first pharmacy I went to regarded me with suspicion when I asked for Xanax. They didn't want to sell it without a prescription and told me to get some at the clinic instead. I got a general feeling of not being welcome the moment I mentioned Xanax.

The second pharmacy I went to was more accommodating. They didn't know what Xanax was and asked me to write down the name of a piece of paper. I wrote down Xanax, Alzoram (the Malaysian generic brand name) and Alprazolam (the chemical name). The old lady there asked his son to read the paper and he instantly recognized Alprazolam. He told the old lady it's sleeping pills (?) and asked where it's kept.

She said they have some at the back and he went over to rummage about under a cabinet. I was feeling hopeful at this point, I didn't even get asked for my prescription script. He didn't find any at the back and rummaged about some more in a box of Handiplast (the sticky bandage). He came out with a stack of blister packs tied together with a rubber band from the box of Handiplast. Don't ask me why it was kept there, I was puzzled too.

The old lady asked me who the medication was for and I made up a cock and bull story about doing an exhibition about benzodiazepines for my university and I was going to stick one pill on a piece of manila card. I don't know if she actually believed that story (I had the feeling she didn't from the look on her face) but there was not questions asked after that. I got the impression that this is a 'no questions asked' pharmacy if you catch my drift. The guy came back at this point and asked me how many blister packs I wanted. I examined one of the blister pack and saw that it’s brand name Xanax pills with each tablet containing 0.25 mg of alprazolam. I was hoping that they carry the beautiful 2 mg pills, but oh well, this will work perfectly well too. There were 10 tablets in the blister pack, which comes to 2.5 mg.

I decided to just go for one blister pack and it was sold to me, for RM7 (A$3.50). This is the brand name Xanax (alprazolam) marketed by Upjohn pharmaceuticals (the old name, they have since merged with Pharmacia). On a side note, I’ve read in the newspapers that being caught with possession of Xanax pills without a prescription carries a RM2000 fine and/or a 2 year jail. Someone who was caught with 24 pills got that sentence recently. They were credited as 'upjohn' pills though, which further illustrates that mainstream journalism has their heads planted firmly up their ass when reporting on technical or drug issues. Upjohn is a pharmaceuticals company, not a drug name.

Trip Report

Substance name: Alprazolam (Xanax)
Street names: Z-bars, bars, Upjohn (in Malaysia)
Dosage: 2.5 mg (10 x 0.25 mg) taken orally in a mixture of powder, broken off bits and whole pills. The pills seem rather crumbly and some broke into pieces as soon as I pressed it from the blister pack. I do not have any tolerance to benzodiazepines.
Usual recreational dosage for people with no benzodiazepine tolerance: 1-2 mg
Pills: White oval pills with Upjohn 29 imprinted on one side and a single score on the other side. The pills have beveled edges. Each pill contains 0.25 mg of alprazolam. They come in a blister pack containing 10 pills for a total of 2.5 mg, if you eat them all.

T+ 0:00
I took all 10 pills at 11:00 pm sharp. The pills are in a mixture of powder, bits of tablets and whole tablets. This was because the pills are either very brittle or this is old stock so they break easily. The tablets tasted like powdered mint (without any hint of sweetness) at first and very bitter when i washed it down with water.
T+ 0:05
Noticed some clumsiness and a heaviness in the head and a general feeling of being mildly stoned only 5 minutes later (!!!)
T+ 0:08
A feeling of not being very sober, but I can't put my finger on what exactly gave me this feeling of non-sobriety. I just feel not very sober. the medical term for this is derealisation I believe.
T+ 0:14
mild nausea. a feeling of numbness in my extremities, especially the fingers, very much like the feeling you get when you're starting to get drunk. Heaviness of the head is present all throughout the time.
T+ 0:18
feeling a kind of 'super enhanced sight'. its like i can see every movement i make is in full frame and with a high framerate. don't really know how to explain it besides this. it feels like the start of a LSD trip visually, everything looks enhanced, colors stand out etc, but this is very mild. clumsiness did not get any worse. numbness in extremities still present.
T+ 0:20
a mild euphoria. not like ecstasy euphoria but more like codeine euphoria. aka stupid euphoria. :) a better word will be contentment. palms are feeling sweaty, which is peculiar for me since i seldom get sweaty palms
T+ 0:22
pupils VERY dilated (?!?!?!) even in bright light. looking at myself in the mirror feels wierd. uneven dilation. my left pupil is more dilated than the right one.
T+ 0:30
feeling contented and relaxed. not much progression other than that. feeling slightly disappointed due to high expectations. i'm more of a fan of 'fuck me up' drugs like LSD which provides cool visuals and wierd trains of thoughts.
T+ 0:40
hmm...feeling slightly sleepy now.
T+ 0:43
er...i'm trying to fight this feeling of being sleepy. it's getting stronger. heh.
T+ 0:50
i caught myself staring at a half eaten chocolate bar with a bit of chocolate sticking out in an interesting manner. stop hypnotizing me dammit.
T+ 1:00
yawn. i'm trying to keep an open mind but it seems that this is all Xanax has to offer. a feeling of being (very) mildly drunk and admittedly quite significant relaxation. not much euphoria to speak of. valium (another benzodiazepine) provides much more euphoria compared to this.
T+ 1:10
wtf? i feel myself returning to baseline already. baseline = normal (sober) state
T+ 1:15
i still felt slightly clumsy and my body feels heavier than usual when walking. not much more numbness in the fingers and i'm still feeling sleepy.
T+ 1:20
noticed some problems with memory. i dropped my cell phone to the floor earlier and didn't remember to retrieve it until 30 minutes later.
T+ 1:26
hehehe
walking arond in the dark with my arms swinging freaked me out considerably. and i thought Xanax was supposed to be prescribed for anxiety and panic attacks. =D
T+ 1:30
feeling close to baseline now. i suspect i'll have a nice deep sleep later tonight too. :)
T+ 1:40
a nice afterglow can be felt. still feeling contended and happy. walking still feels a bit strange, but nice. i just noticed that time passes pretty damn fast on Xanax. i didn't even notice that nearly 2 hours have passed since i took the pills. hmm...i wonder what i did in those two hours since it didn't felt like i did much at all. :)
T+ 2:20
i did another time jump. don't ask me where the past 40 minutes went, coz i seriously don't know. i wasn't even doing anything.

Afternotes:
I don't see the appeal in taking Xanax by itself. It’s basically just a chill pill, and I’m not into this particular class of drugs. I can see its value in helping with meth/coke/other stimulant comedowns, but when taken on its own, it doesn't have very much to offer. Possible good combos will be Xanax + alcohol (be careful, a lot of deaths has been attributed to this combination) and Xanax + cannabis (the sedative effects will probably provide a nice synergy). Personally, I feel Valium (diazepam) would be a much better alternative if you like benzodiazepines. Valium actually gives me pretty good euphoria when taken in recreational doses. An interesting thing with Xanax is time seems to go much faster. It’s almost as if time jumps forward. One minute you look at the clock and it’s 2:15 am. You feel that only a minute has passed but next time you look, the time is already 2:45 am and you’re left scratching your head about what happened during the last 30 minutes coz you don’t remember doing anything at all. Huh? It happened a lot of times during the trip too. Very bizarre.

Caution:
Being in possession of prescription drugs without a prescription could be against the law in your country.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 19389
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 15, 2003	Views: 314,027
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Pharms - Alprazolam (98) : Alone (16), First Times (2)