DOSE:	6 lines	insufflated	Products - Other	(powder / crystals)
	repeated	oral	Alcohol
	repeated	smoked	Cannabis
	repeated	smoked	Cannabis - Hash

BODY WEIGHT:

160 lb

[Erowid Note: Cannabis substitute "spice" type smoking blends, "Bath salts", "plant food", "incense", "tea" and similar products generally do not accurately list psychoactive ingredients or dosage on their packaging. Analysis has revealed that ingredients in a single product of this type may vary over time. The component chemical(s) may be different than what is assumed for this report.]
First little bit about me I'm a 50-year-old English guy, working in the television industry. Over the past 30 years beginning, as with most people, by smoking cannabis, I have an average experience of drugs; and have taken LSD, Psilocybin, Cocaine, Heroin, Ketamine, 2CB, 2CI, AMT, Amphetamines, Ecstasy and Mephedrone. As the years gone by I have reduced my intake on all of these considerably. I still smoke cannabis daily, but not a huge amount, take Coke about once a month and Ecstasy about three times a year.

Coke is typically expensive in England, if you want to get the best quality and, in London, it costs of about $120 a gramme. Other brands are available, but the cut is usually so high, that it is not worth the bother. With this price in mind, it is not surprising that my friends and I are always on the lookout for a cheaper alternative.

A couple of months ago one of these friends found such an alternative online, the aforementioned Synthacaine, for 10 pounds a gramme. All perfectly legal. He had brought some round to my 50th birthday party recently but, as there was plenty of the real thing around, I did not try it because I wanted to experience the Synthacaine by itself.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a chance, when I went to visit him. I had just got through the door, and settled down with my first drink, when my friend pulled out a large bag of Synthacaine. As far as I could tell it was a very fine-grained, off-white powder, indistinguishable from very ‘cut’ Cocaine. There were no sizeable lumps or rocks that I could see.

My friend immediately proceeded to knock out two, fairly substantial, chunky lines, more the size of lines of speed, rather than Coke. I tasted a little bit of the dust out of my finger, and it had that familiar bitterness that you get with good Coke. There was also very light numbing sensation on the end of my tongue. We snorted the lines which, was not an unpleasant experience - it certainly burnt a good deal less than snorting MDMA or speed.

After about 15 minutes I felt the effect. There was a nice gentle raising of my perception, quite unlike the sharp, mechanical lift that I get with a line of good coke. I instantly became very chatty, and also felt slight empathetic warmth towards my friend which I've not necessary experienced on coke. As the next 20 to 30 minutes went by, this sensation increased to a very pleasurable level. The drug itself felt very clean, very well made. It was exactly like Coke but with the annoying 'corners' of the Coke experience shaved off, by this I mean there was no edginess, or restlessness. I have also found that, after a period of time, even the best Coke leaves my mind and my consciousness in a slightly flat space, feeling demotivated and lost, wanting something to happen, without knowing quite what. The most undesirable effect with this drug, was the wobbly jaw syndrome that I also get with Coke. And it was moreish in the way that Coke is moreish, 20 minutes after the first line I was more than ready for a second !

This was similarly enjoyable, and I did not notice the propensity that Coke has, to 'stack up' in my mind, line by line… With this drug, each line was clean and separate, and was not affected by the line before it or the line after. We must have had about another five lines altogether, much smaller than the original introductory one. We had very little alcohol, a few light beers and, I think, 1 shot of Scotch?

As the afternoon glided by, my friend did his best to create a perfect setting for the drug, with fantastic music, and beautiful visual projections... we were warm and safe and comfortable. In short, an ideal, indoor, London Winter afternoon – De Quincy with Techno!

As time moved on I did notice a slightly trippy visual effect, the sort of thing that I get with a mild dose of MDMA, perhaps betraying the inclusion of some psychedelic amphetamine in the Synthacaine makeup. Colours were brighter, I was more sensitive to geometric patterns and the visuals on his wall-mounted TV screen did look extraordinary good!

I had arranged to meet my wife, who was in another part of town visiting a friend, so I made preparations to head back to my house, about an hour away from where I was staying, it was about 7 in the evening, by this point. It was a bitterly cold night, but I was looking forward to the journey, I had my iPhone and a very good drum and bass mix to listen to on the subway. I left my friend’s house lively, but not wired. I had no mental confusion or paranoia and, although the aforementioned mild visuals were interesting, they did not in any way interfere with my hour-long journey home, which was surprisingly quick!!

At home, I was confronted with a message on my voicemail, to the effect that my wife had managed to get herself completely drunk with a friend, and was not to be around that evening. We don't live together (long story) so I was resigned to an evening by myself, not an unappealing prospect. I bought some food from local takeaway, to my surprise I was actually quite hungry, and had no trouble eating. Six hours had elapsed since my last line.

I then sat down in front of the computer and surfed the Net for a couple of hours. I felt as if I had come down from the Synthacaine experience of the early afternoon, the only thing that I did notice, was a vague, mental, background buzz going on my head. It was a certain sensation of vigorous activity at a mental level, without actually feeling the effort of doing such activity.
I suppose the best way to describe it, would be that I was aware of the thought processes in my brain - something I suppose that would normally be masked.

One very strange thing I noticed back home, which I had not noticed in the afternoon. Over to a three hour period I experienced three unbelievably strong, sensations of sexual arousal. Twice these feelings of arousal literally just popped into my head with no obvious trigger whatsoever! I have never experienced such a sensation to such an extent with any other drug before, even with Coke, the arousal I experience is qualitatively different...more 'edgy'. Unfortunately, I was totally unable to do anything about it, as I had temporarily been rendered impotent - NOT something I would associate with Cocaine use!

Time ticked inexorably toward midnight, and I was very aware that I had to work the next day. I was a little concerned as to whether I will be able to sleep. Over the next few hours I smoked quite a bit more dope, concentrating on hash rather than grass, for its beneficial soporific effects.

At about 1:30 I decided I decided to give sleep a go. Briefly put, this was impossible, and over the next five or six hours I lay in bed - “hopelessly and helplessly awake”… There were similarities with this insomnia to experiences I have had on certain cheaper batches of Coke, and I'm wondering now whether those cheaper batches contained Synthacaine. As with Mephedrone, I was aware of a constant background tick or background hum, which would not let my mind rest. I have found that this is quite unpleasant on Mephedrone, this time it did not bother me, at the same time, I was very aware that I had to get to sleep because I had to work following day.

Interestingly I had none of those “have I been asleep, or was I awake the whole time?” moments that I get with Coke and E when I try to sleep, I was aware of being awake the whole time. By 6 o'clock I realised that I could not actually face work. The days of going to work on 0 hours sleep, and be able to function normally, are long gone from my life, and the job tomorrow was with a new client, so I called work and said I'd hurt my neck, and that I was unable to come in. Finally at about seven AM, I caught myself starting to doze and I slept not too badly until about midday.

I got up and made myself a tea, and mooched around the flat little bit, waiting for some horrible and unique chemical comedown to suddenly hit. It did not… As my afternoon wore on and I got a little braver, I progressed to doing my emails, getting food, talking to work, making few practical arrangements in my private life by phone and email and actually…writing this!

It is now +28 after taking my first line of Synthacaine. I feel calm and collected; have been able to perform reasonably complex tasks and interact with people with ease. This may not sound like a big deal but, from my experiences of previous ‘big nights’, it really is quite a difference in my normal ‘day after’ behaviour.

Unlike after Coke, I'm not edgy, irritable, I haven't had to pop off to bed for a couple hours to catch up on l my sleep. I'm actually very surprised by the comedown or lack of it, I feel as if I have taken of good dose of Modafinil, to be honest.

So, Synthacaine… As I said before, I thought that it was a very clean drug, and I think if I take into consideration (when dosing) that I will get no sleep for at least 7 - 8 hours after I stop taking it, I think actually it's very attractive drug and certainly a cheaper, and possibly healthier, alternative to cocaine. It has fascinating vectors of many other drugs which makes it quite interesting to me. Yes, the overall effect was very similar to coke, but the amplified visual, and audio, perception and the feeling of well-being, betray its psychedelic amphetamine roots.
The price is dangerously attractive, however.

All drugs, however cheap, are open to abuse, and I think that the $15 price tag makes that potential for abuse quite high. “A little and occasionally” is probably the best rule here, enjoyable as it was!

Exp Year: 2012	ExpID: 98486
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 50
Published: Jan 24, 2018	Views: 4,823
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