DOSE:

500 mg

oral

MBDB

(powder / crystals)

BODY WEIGHT:

210 lb

Mindset:
I was really excited about trying this rare phenethylamine for the first time and was in a positive frame of mind.

Setting:
Isolated, woodsy environment in which I am very comfortable and which has been the scene of many memorable entheogenic experiences in the past. Very nice sunny day in the late afternoon of early summer.

Details of any preparations made for the experience:
Made sure I had plenty of water and I brought a towel with me just in case of excess perspiration.

Dosage & Timing Information:
I had acquired 1000 mg of pure, powdered MBDB. The material had a strong odor, reminiscent of sassafrass; almost reminiscent of root beer or even licorice. I have had ecstasy pills in the past with this same distinctive odor. I dissolved the material in a small water bottle and split the liquid 50/50 with a friend, thus consuming approximately 500 mg each. The liquid was consumed within a period of 5 to 10 minutes. It was very bitter tasting, but not difficult to consume.

The Experience:
I was being somewhat adventurous in taking the dosage that I did. In all of the available literature about this substance, I had never heard of any one consuming much more than about 200 mg at one time, sometimes supplementing with a dose of around 75 mg a couple of hours later. I had however, read reports in scientific journals describing experimental test subjects who had been administered dosages in the 5mg/kg range and above, with no reference to ill effects.

Most of the available literature suggested that MBDB is approximately 2/3 the gram potency of MDMA, so I reasoned that a dose of about 350 mg should be analogous to 2 x 120 mg doses of MDMA. In the past, I have taken approximately 240 mg of MDMA, then supplemented with a dose of about 120 mg at approximately the two hour point to good affect. So I originally had planned on consuming about 2/3 of my spiked water bottle at the outset(roughly 350 mg MBDB) and the remaining third(roughly 150 mg MBDB)at around the two hour point, if it seemed warranted. However, we feared we were likely to either spill or otherwise lose the remaing liquid, and we really didn't want to have to worry about it during the trip. Since all of the available literature suggested that MBDB is relatively mild compared to MDMA, and after all, I have consumed as much as 360 mg of MDMA at once with no regrets, we figured 'oh what the hell' and polished off our spiked water bottles within a period of 10 minutes. Whatever doesn't kill me only makes me higher.

So we each had roughly 500 mg of MBDB in our system. I usually like to take a long walk right after I consume a substance, otherwise I tend to get a little nervous as I wait for first alerts. We walked for about twenty minutes, feeling no effects whatsoever. At around this time, I started to feel a mild intoxication, pleasant, but not terribly intense. Vaguely reminiscent of some aspects of a mild MDMA experience, but perhaps equally reminisent of a slight alcohol buzz, as some others have suggested. This lasted about 5 minutes, when suddenly, I felt very dizzy and a bit confused.

I was extremely uncoordinated and felt I had to sit down. I was extremely nauseous, and dry heaved a couple of times. These dysphoric feelings seemed to grow exponentially, and for the first time in my long history of entheogen exploration, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps I had overdone it this time. Perhaps I was going to have to go to the emergency room. I had outrageous nystagmus; my eyes were bobbing back and forth like ping pong balls. My jaw was shaking as though I was in subzero temperatures. I was extremely hot and sweaty, and extremely nauseous, but wary of overheating and dehydration, I forced my self to take small sips of cold water.

The eye jiggle was so intense that it was painful and disturbing to keep my eyes open. I couldn't focus on anything, I really thought I was about to pass out. I thought to myself 'OK, this is it- do I go to the emergency room or can I ride this out?'

At this point, to my horror, I realized that my friend had yet to experience any effects at all! 'My God!' I though to myself. 'It must not have dissoved uniformly! I have probably consumed close to 1000mg of MBDB! That's like taking 6 ecstasy pills at once! No one has ever done this before! I'm going to die!'

Then, an inner voice of reason reminded me 'come on man- you know that the chemical dissolved uniformly. You closely inspected the liquid before consuming. You tasted each other's bottles. Worst case scenario, you may have taken the equivalent of 4 strong ecstasy pills at once. You will feel crappy for a half hour or so, but it'll be OK'.

I forced myself to get up and walk to an area with greater shade. Walking felt very wobbly and awkward and I still felt like I might faint at any moment. I sat down again, reeling. It didn't feel good to close my eyes, but keeping them open was even worse. I just kept repeating to myself in my mind 'It will be OK, it will be OK, it will be OK' and occasionally forcing myself to sip some cold water. When I felt I could try walking again, my friend, still feeling nothing, suggested we return to the more secluded place from which we had started, less someone come strolling by and see me like this. I couldn't quite make it all the way back, but close enough that we were not likely to be seen by passersby.

I was sitted down cross legged, my head in my hands. Suddenly, the intense dysphoria abated just a bit. Then just a bit more. Increasingly, it became clear that I was not going to faint, I was not going to have to go to the emergency room. The nystagmus, while still intense, decreased to a tolarable level, as did the jaw rattling. As it became clearer and clearer that the worst was over, I began to experience waves of euphoria, somewhat comparable to that entactogenic sense of 'everything is just perfect' one gets on MDMA but nowhere near as intense. It was toying with euphoria, but never really grabbing hold of it.

Feeling much better now, I was able to get up and jog to meet my friend, who was still not feeling much from the drug. He informed me that the total amount of time that had elapsed from when I first started feeling queasy to the present moment had only been about 20 minutes. 20 minutes? It had felt like 2 hours to me. It felt great to be out of that hole!

The nystagmus and jaw clenching continued to abate and eventually disappeared after about two hours or so. The rest of the experience was somewhat enjoyable, but I never really got to where I wanted to go. While there were suggestions of entactogenic euphoria throughout the experience, it never quite got there. All in all I would have to say it was disappointing. It certainly isn't a substitute for MDMA. I think I would have had a much better time if I had taken a much lower dose.

If I ever did it again- and I have no desire to- I would do 250-300 mg to start and if I felt like it was warranted, I would boost with perhaps 100 at the two hour point. In lower doses, all of the physical side effects which so compromised this trip would likley be greatly abated or altogether absent. I suspect it would be more like a mild MDMA experience, but I don't think MBDB is capable of providing that 'state of grace'; that magical entactogenic euphoria you get with MDMA. Those people who say that MBDB is virtually indistinguishable from MDMA must not be too familiar with MDMA. It's hard to imagine how anyone could say the effects of the two were very similar unless they had only explored threshold doses of both chemicals.

After the intensely uncomfortable come on, the high itself, while not very intense, was pretty stable. The drug does have a great after glow however. This is perhaps the only aspect of the drug which is comparable to or maybe even superior to MDMA. The main effects of the drug wear off after about 4 hours, but you feel a profound sense of what I might call 'non intoxicated contentedness' for about two hours after that. Very relaxed and comfortable.

My friend did eventually feel the effects of the drug, by the way, but was about 40 minutes behind me in epxeriencing the effects. He experienced some intense jaw jiggle and nystagmus, as well as some nausea, but he did not experience anything like the dysphoria I had endured. Some of the reasons for this are that while I hadn't eaten anything all day prior to the trip, my friend had had a large lunch several hours earlier, and drank a 16 oz beer before consuming the MBDB, both of which presumably slowed the absorption rate of the drug. My friend liked it a little more than I did-not having gone through the twenty minutes of hell that I had-but agreed that it was no substitute for MDMA.

If you are thinking of trying this substance, be conservative. Start with a dose in the 180 to 200 mg range and wait a few hours before supplementing. Use the dosages given in the PIHKAL entry for MBDB as a guide. If you happen to come across it and you're curious, try it, but it's not worth going out of your way to obtain. And don't set your expectations too high- it's really not a very intersting drug. Certainly no substitute for MDMA.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 24858
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 29, 2003	Views: 24,583
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MBDB (190) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Difficult Experiences (5), First Times (2), General (1)