More About the Psychedelic Called "2C-E"

The drug they took (or were given) is one of the many creations of the chemist and drug researcher Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin who is perhaps most famous for inventing MDMA or "Ecstasy".

report:

"The patients, aged between 24 and 56, were found suffering from delusions, breathing problems, racing hearts and cramps, with some in a serious condition, Deutsche Welle reported .

"Tests on their blood and urine revealed they had all taken hallucinogenic drug 2C-E, which is known as Aquarust in Germany and has been illegal there since the end of last year."
[ SOURCE ]

The drug is very dose sensitive. At lower dosages it can be a very enjoyable and insightful psychedelic, but at higher dosages it can be a nightmarish bad trip, so it looks as if the affected people at the conference were given (or took) too much.

Here is some information from Alexander Shulgin's book "Pihkal" ("Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved"). First the synthesis is described, then these "qualitative" comments:

2C-E
2,5-DIMETHOXY-4-ETHYLPHENETHYLAMINE

https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal024.shtml

DOSAGE: 10 - 25 mg.

DURATION: 8 - 12 h.

QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 16 mg) There was a strange devil-angel pairing. As I was being told of the ecstatic white-light ascent of my partner into the God-space of an out-of-body experience, I was fighting my way out of a brown ooze. She saw the young Jesus at the bottom of a ladder drifting upwards step by step to some taking-off place, and I saw all the funny gargoyles around the base of the ladder surrounded by picnic bunting. For me it was the 4th of July, rather than Easter!S

(with 20 mg) The view out of the window was unreal. The garden was painted on the window, and every petal of flower and tuft of grass and leaf of tree was carefully sculptured in fine strokes of oil paint on the surface of the glass. It was not out there; it was right here in front of me. The woman who was watering the plants was completely frozen, immobilized by Vermeer. And when I looked again, she was in a different place, but again frozen. I was destined to become the eternal museum viewer.

(with 25 mg) I have a picture in my living room that is a stylized German scene with a man on horseback riding through the woods, and a young girl coming out to meet him from the nearby trees. But she was not just 'coming out.' He was not just riding through the woods. The wind was blowing, and his horse was at full gallop, and his cape was flapping in the storm, and she was bearing down upon him at full bore. The action never ceased. I became exhausted.

(with 25 mg) Within minutes I was anxious and sweaty. Each person has his own brand of toxic psychosis--mine always starts with the voices in my head talking to me, about all my worst fears, a jumble of warnings and deep fears spinning faster. Twenty minutes later this complex chaos passed as quickly as it had come. At lower dosages 2C-E has been a truly enjoyable esthetic enhancer. But it really has a steep dose/response curve.

EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: Here is another of the magical half-dozen. The range is purposefully broad. At 10 milligrams there have been some pretty rich +++ experiences, and yet I have had the report from one young lady of a 30 milligram trial that was very frightening. My first experience with 2C-E was really profound, and it is the substance of a chapter within the story. The amphet-amine homologue is DOET, which is not only much longer in action, but considerably more potent. Several people have said, about 2C-E, "I don't think I like it, since it isn't that much fun. But I intend to explore it again." There is something here that will reward the experimenter. Someday, the full character of 2C-E will be understood, but for the moment, let it rest as being a difficult and worth-while material. A very much worth-while material. One Tweetio of 2C-E is known. The 5-EtO-homologue of 2C-E is 5-ethoxy-4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenethylamine, or 2CE-5ETO. The nitrostyrene intermediate had a melting point of 110-110.5 °C, and the final hydrochloride a melting point of 184-185 °C. The effective level of 2CE-5ETO is in the 10 to 15 milligram range. It is gentle, forgiving, and extremely long lived. Some 3 to 4 hours were needed to achieve plateau, and on occasion experi-ments were interrupted with Valium or Halcion at the 16 hour point. After a night's sleep, there were still some effects evident the next day. Thus, the dose is comparable to the parent compound 2C-E, but the duration is 2 to 3 times longer. It was given the nickname "Eternity" by one subject.

You can read the full text of Shulgin's PIHKAL here. 179 drugs are reported on.

Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved:
A Chemical Love Story
By Alexander and Ann Shulgin
https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml

You can read more 2C-E "experience reports" here at Erowid:

2C-E Reports (316 Total)
https://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_2CE.shtml

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