DOSE:

repeated

oral

Pharms - Zopiclone

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

74 kg

I am a 34yo male, reformed alcoholic/drug user, however have the occasional play around with pills etc. I have not consumed alcohol for 4 years and have been away from street drugs + pot for even longer.

I had a rather large cache of these pills (Zopiclone aka Imovane) and experimented over a couple of months.

Generally speaking, these pills really don’t do it for me. They have too many of the hypnotic side effects and not a good enough high to outweigh the negatives. I started using the normal dose of 7.5mg (1 tab) but went as high as taking 15 tabs (or possibly more) on some occasions. On those occasions I did not intend to take that many but this drug seriously causes huge problems as far as judgment is concerned.

This drug is classified as a hypnotic and that truly describes the drugs effect, especially at higher doses. YI am just in a hypnotic state, a trance, not there. This drug would, I am sure, be used by rapists who spike victims drinks. It removes all defenses and as described below, causes serious amnesia.

Once the effects kick in, which really only include relaxation and a mild euphoria (at normal doses), I found my ability to exercise normal or proper judgment to be seriously undermined. The other side effect which seems to be a common problem is amnesia, and I mean total amnesia. I found that over the months I experimented with this drug I was losing entire days/nights. I could not remember anything about the previous nights experimentation, especially in doses of >3 tabs. I was also having problems putting any memories that I did have into any form of chronological order. I would remember going to the shops or something but could not tell if it was the day before, the week before or even that day. This issue was present even when NOT under the direct effects.

I was abusing the pills at night only, but even the next day I was having big problems putting anything in my head into “order”. This created feelings of detachment and actually added to the anxiety I was experiencing (which is why I started using them in the first place.) The other disturbing aspects include having these “flashbacks” or recall of memories. I might be sitting at work and all of a sudden I would have this rush of memories from when I was under the influence days (or weeks) before. Usually they were pretty horrifying, like remembering talking to someone on the phone or going to some public place whilst being seriously intoxicated on the drug. I think I may have made a spectacle of myself on some occasions and not really had much knowledge of it. I also found in my outbox incomprehensible emails sent to people I know. I have no recollection of typing or sending them.

It's these aspects of the drug that make it quite unenjoyable, certainly frightening on occasions. This is the hypnotic qualities.

The effects themselves appear within minutes of taking the pill. Sometimes within as little as two minutes. At normal doses the effect is relaxation, euphoria as with the benzodiazepines. Once the dose goes higher the first thing you notice is clumsiness, like knocking things over, dropping things, slurred speech and unsteady gait. At even higher doses I found it hard to control even simple limb movements, walking etc and staying conscious.

On one of the occasions when I took (stupid) very high doses like 15/20 pills I would completely pass out for 10 hours or so. Once I came to at about 4am and I was “sitting” on the toilet, wrong way around, more like I had straddled it like a horse and had my head resting on top of the cistern. I had been there for about 8 hours like that and my body was really sore from being slumped in this position for such an amount of time.

I never meant to take that many and I cant even remember actually taking them. The only way I could gauge how many I took was by writing down how many were in the box before I took the first one. The next day I would check the packet and find 15 missing. It was horrifying. Then you start trying to piece together what you had done, where you had been and if I had sent emails/used phone etc. I would go outside and check the car for damage etc. Once I went into my local chemist to buy some other, unrelated products. I paid for all this stuff and then just left, leaving all the stuff and my wallet on the counter. It wasn’t until the next day I had these slight memories of being there. I went back and man, fuck they gave me some seriously side ways looks. Another very unpleasant side effect is this terrible taste you get in my mouth. It didn’t matter what I ate or drank this taste was terrible. It was not dependant on whether the pill(s) touched my tongue or not either.

For me, one of the “good” things about taking a drug is knowing how good it feels and remembering the effect. This drug does not allow that because A) Being a hypnotic I really don’t even realise at the time what I feel/what I am doing and B) I cant remember anything about it anyway. So in that regard it is quite a boring drug, boring but not harmless. Not being able to exercise ANY judgment and not being able to remember anything creates serious anxiety (for me anyway) and as a result there is no fun in this drug.

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 42416
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 20, 2006	Views: 31,307
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Pharms - Zopiclone (272) : Various (28), Retrospective / Summary (11)