Desoxy (psychedelic)

Desoxy, or DESOXY, also known as 4-desoxymescaline, 4-methylmescaline, or 4-methyl-3,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (4-Me-3,5-DMPEA), is a psychedelic drug of the phenethylamine and desoxyscaline families related to mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine). It is the analogue of mescaline in which the methoxy group at the 4 position has been replaced with a methyl group, hence an oxygen has been removed and the name "desoxy". The drug is also a positional isomer of 2C-D (4-Me-2,5-DMPEA). In his book PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved) and other publications, Alexander Shulgin lists desoxy's dose as 40 to 120 mg orally and its duration as 6 to 8 hours. It is approximately 4-fold more potent than mescaline, which has a listed dose range of 178 to 356 mg orally as the hydrochloride salt. The effects of desoxy have been reported to include very dream-like closed-eye imagery, noteworthy closed-eye imagery with music, no open-eye visual enhancements, auditory hallucinations, sense of strangeness and the world feeling unrecognizable and alien, feeling as if one has lost their center, sleep-like trance state while trying to sleep, preservation if not enhancement of thinking skills and conversation, very good feelings, and good and mellow mood. Other effects included chills or feeling cold, slight hints of neurological sensitivity, nausea, tachycardia, chest pressure, possible urinary retention, insomnia, and possible subsequent "spiritual crisis". In one report, it was said that desoxy produced a "quite fascinating experience", while in another report, it was said that "there was none of the colorful psychedelic world of mescaline" but that this "might be just around the corner", "perhaps with a larger dose", with the assessed dose of 100 mg orally being a "comfortable in-between level". Higher doses than 100 mg orally were not tested. According to Shulgin, removal of an oxygen atom, as with desoxy, can radically change the nature of the effects compared to mescaline.