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Long Acting, Stimulating
Isoproscaline
Citation:   amberdream. "Long Acting, Stimulating: An Experience with Isoproscaline (exp117167)". Erowid.org. Oct 4, 2023. erowid.org/exp/117167

 
DOSE:
80 mg oral Isoproscaline (powder / crystals)
BODY WEIGHT: 60 kg
First Trial With Isoproscaline

Isoproscaline*HCl – 4-isopropoxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine hydrochloride

Dosage: 80 mg

Set: starting at a train station on the way home, then at home, mostly in front of computer, listening to music.

Setting: currently difficult situation in life. Earlier, some conflict with my dad.

Intention: getting high on a new compound I made, characterising the substance in lack of reports.

Pretext:
I recently had a very interesting first-time experience with 330 mg of mescaline*HCl, leading to a glowing, fantastic, entactogenic psychedelic experience despite some rather bad circumstances – I tend to seek psychedelics when at rather low points. This experience made me interested in trying out various 3,4,5-substituted phenethylamines. So I set out beginning to synthesise the series, starting with proscaline and isoproscaline. For the proscaline, some troubles with the synthesis resulted in isolation of only an unusable quantity for bioassays, so isoproscaline should be my first experience with a scaline. I have only tried a handful of other psychedelic compounds, which would be the LSD-prodrugs 1A-LSD and 1cP-LSD, 2C-B, 2C-C, 4-Propoxy-3-methoxyamphetamine (not a full psychedelic imo), psilocybe cubensis, DMT and mescaline. So far, I’ve preferred the phenethylamine-type compounds, as they are usually easier to control, and I don’t get lost in a mind-bending journey through a threatening spiritual realm. I’ve also got experience with a handful of other drugs, such as a number of substituted amphetamines, cathinones and butanphenamines with stimulant and/or entactogenic properties, and a couple of other common drugs like kratom, N2O, ketamine, cannabis, d8-THC, GBL, tert-pentanol, etc.

Currently, I’m in a very tricky situation in life, with my dreams being crushed and no real aspirations for the future, other than things hopefully going better again. Curiosity is my main driving force towards trying out novel and exotic drug experiences. I don’t necessarily seek answers, because I’m mostly aware of factors towards my depression. In that way, my relationship with substances is not very healthy – I’d say most of my drug experiences are more negative than positive, all things combined. Yet the moments drugs do give me some relaxation, or a positive glow, they are so precious to me. I hope that one day, with me hopefully slowly working on myself and finding myself at a better place in life, I can turn this around to only find myself in situations where I can take compounds with meaning, rather than some weird mixture of curiosity, escapism and compulsive need for mind-alteration.

Anyways, this pretext is just to inform you about my current relationship towards substances, life, and outlook. I think it is important to give an insight into my mind to make sense of the mess I am. I felt compelled to write up this trip report as there are currently only a few reports of isoproscaline, that is: the two comments in PiHKAL, the dose titration reports in Shulgin’s pharmacology notebooks, one trip report on Erowid (making this the hopefully second soon), three words describing isoproscaline as euphoric/ecstatic in Trachsel’s “Phenethylamine – Von der Struktur zur Funktion” and a handful of non-descriptive short comments in various drug forums. So not much information to go on about.

About the substance:

Isoproscaline was made in three steps by alkylation of syringaldehyde with K2CO3 and isopropyl bromide in DMF, followed by condensation of the substituted aldehyde with nitromethane catalysed by ethanolammonium acetate in acetic acid, followed by reduction with NaBH4 and catalytic Cu(OAc)2. The compound was isolated as hydrochloride, thoroughly washed by another A/B extraction, and then precipitated from a small volume of isopropanol using acetone. This yielded a white salt with a melting point of 162.2 – 162.6 °C (compare PiHKAL, 163 – 164 °C). The yields were rather sloppy, so I will likely not publish a full synthesis in any of the places where it would be appropriate, given that this is known and simple chemistry, easily followed by TLC. I will ignore and block any requests concerning the sourcing of drugs or precursors.

Trip report:

Whenever I finish a new compound, I feel a very strong urge to try it as soon as possible. Given that I didn’t see any proper opportunities for tripping in the next couple days due to some obligations, my brain tricked me into taking 80 mg of the compound in the evening, dissolved in some orange juice at a train station, with 15 minutes of waiting at the station, plus another 30 min train ride to home. It is here, where we begin. When I arrived home, I didn’t spend much time documenting the trip in a log format on my phones notebook, so later timestamps are partially reconstructed and filled by memory, and existing notes expanded to make a bit more sense. The trip report was written with fresh memory on the evening after the trip.

0:00: Consumption of 80 mg isoproscaline HCl on largely empty stomach, dissolved in about 100 mL of orange juice. The taste is entirely masked by the juice.

0:03: Putting on DnB music on my phone. Trying to better my mood after some conflict with my dad, who rightfully urged me to take the steps necessary to get my life under control again. Closing my eyes, waiting for the train at the train station. I’m rather tired from the day.

0:07: Not sure if I do feel some bodily effects manifesting already. Just a hint. Probably nothing.

0:09: Very sunken in those empty thoughts, closing my eyse. Maybe I’m just tired.

0:10: A bit of PEA head tingling? Already?

0:11: Train coming in soon. Not many people around, thankfully.

0:18: Calm drowsy happiness creeping up? Some slight hints towards uneasiness in the stomach.

0:20: Closing my eyes, this sort of feels like a very slow and gentle BDB come up. A good mood is setting in.

0:21: Nausea slowly getting more pronounced. This seems to be a slow and gentle compound in its come up so far. Similarly to mescaline, which has a similar fast, but gracious entry for me. I may be a bit odd, but 2C-B is slower for me, and only has definite mental effects at the 40 min mark.

0:29: Music has a remarkable influence on the fantasy with closed eyes. Seeing images when closing my eyes, especially when tired, is very common to me, but I think the isoproscaline synchronises it with the DnB blasting through my headphones. I see beakers, their contents swirling to the beat of the music. Sometimes, I see the swirled contents from above, like a spiral. Flickering lights to the beat of the music.

0:31: Slight nausea. Concentrating on the nausea makes it worse.

0:34: Up to a solid Shulgin +2. Euphoric component, not sure if I’m holding it back because of being in the train. Colour perception influenced, much lighter tones everywhere. Changed colour perception does happen on psychedelics for me, but is usually only at high doses.

0:36: Great deal of euphoria setting in. With closed eyes, bright light, swirling to the music. With open eyes, everything much lighter. Very content.
0:36: Great deal of euphoria setting in. With closed eyes, bright light, swirling to the music. With open eyes, everything much lighter. Very content.
Wicked Days – T & Sugah is playing.

0:41: Solid Shulgin +2.5. Everything is so light. Euphoria is regulated by the fact that I’m in a train. Smiling anyways. Gain satisfaction by knowing I’m the only one in this train glowing on isoproscaline, and probably the only person that will ever be. From the outside, I appear very much sober. No pronounced mydriasis – I never have that really.

0:46: Train arriving at home. I’m a bit jittery getting up, and have to remind myself that nobody is going to notice anything off with me. People are too concerned with themselves to notice anything around them usually. Not that I’m better. And it is not like I show serious hints of intoxication with exotic mescaline analogs. Still, given that I have some spicy chemicals (precursors) in my backpack, I’d rather avoid looking off.

0:53: Decided to go into the supermarket to grab some food while on the way home. Getting myself a baguette and some sweets. I’m annoyed by the amount of people in the market, and the inability of many people to realise or care that they are unnecessarily blocking the path. Given that I’m very clear-headed, I had no troubles paying at the payment machine. I’m irritated by some loud talking of one supermarket employee to another. I can’t make out the words, it all comes in as a jumbled mess, but it seems to me like a stupid discussion. Being blocked by many more people on the way out, I need to remind myself that there is no need to rush, and that I don’t have to get annoyed by people seemingly not being the brightest, especially if it has zero influence on me. I don’t like this part of me, but policing my thoughts like this I also do when sober. Finally being out of the rather full market, I can relax again and concentrate on the music on my short walk home.

1:03: Finally arrived at home. I have the urge to urinate, but setting up my laptop to blast DnB over the stereo, as well as getting into more comfortable trousers is more important. As soon as I arrived home, effects got a lot more intense, less clear-headed, a bit of tracers, alongside the nausea amping up. After going to the toilet, I get to bed and cuddle myself into the blanket, praying for the nausea going over soon. The nausea is similar in intensity to all the other phenethylamines I have tried.

1:26: Rather clear-headed again. No euphoria. Nausea still quite strong.

1:32: Some visual disturbances, like text moving a bit, and having some sort of glow to it, but headspace is remarkably clear.

2:01: Still very much nauseated. Having trouble replying to my girlfriend’s texts, despite being somewhat clear-headed otherwise. I have a bit of a bad conscience about not being completely open about my drug use with her. This is because I feel ashamed of not following the rules we set out when we began the relationship half a year ago. My drug consumption has become way less prone to complete recklessness and addiction, but eh, being a research chemical chemist with a straight-edge girlfriend has some issues in that regard. We have planned that I will trip in her presence, so she learns to be less scared of things completely unknown to her, but I still feel bad bringing up the topic and arranging a day where this would work for us both. Earlier, I also had to print and fill in a document, but was still clear in my mind enough to use the web interface and use the printer. Chatting a bit on Discord.

2:34: Discussing the differences of CEVs and general visualisation for me on Discord. I have the feeling that CEVs on psychedelics are more directed by music, and more vibrant in colour. Also, more patterns, spirals, and swirls, but overall not too different. And they seem to follow a kind of different agenda.

2:39: I’m feeling way more stimulation than with mescaline. This almost feels a bit tweaky and super-alert. I try to dance to the music for a bit, but I don’t want to stomp the neighbour downstairs at night, and while it is certainly enjoyable to dance, I don’t think this is much better than sober dancing. Maybe it would be easier to get in a trance/flow-state, but I don’t feel like trying.

2:41: I’m talking in Drug discords. I am complaining about my stupidity to take drugs in non-perfect set&settings. I feel like I’m not appreciating my opportunities enough. Isoproscaline is hard to reach for most people, and I’m wasting it on a random night with no intention other than getting high and getting to know the substance.

3:11: Finally was able to wish my girlfriend good night, she is tired and I pretend I am going to bed too, too tired to write much. I feel like coming off a bit odd, as I pretty much ignore her bits of flirting. With that out of the way, I’m feeling more relieved, and a very good, but certainly not overly euphoric mood, is setting in.

3:19: Most of the nausea is gone now too.

3:57: I get invited to a drug Discord by some curious guy on Reddit. I talk about the effects, and some other drugs. I characterise isoproscaline as having similar visual activity as mescaline for me, coming in waves, but not too much going on. The headspace is very clear, the intensity comparable to 15 mg 2C-B * HCl, but more visual for me. 2C-B barely has any visual activity going on at that level for me. I complain about lack of introspection, it feels like there is less than with 2C-B or mescaline. But there is some variety to psychedelics, I’ve had both quite introspective and quite shallow trips on 2C-B, the compound I have the most experience with.

4:26: Slowly getting ready for bed. The trip hasn’t really stopped, but I slowly want to get to rest and try to sleep the rest away, as I’m really tired otherwise tomorrow with a bad sleep schedule. As I brush my teeth, I see myself smiling in the mirror. I like the person I see. I’m mostly content with my personality. I love the cute cheeks when my girlfriend is smiling, and I kind of see her face through my face now. This makes me happy. Blemishes in my face are beginning to form a waving pattern, kind of like an Aztec-inspired mask over my face. This is very similar to looking into the mirror on mescaline. I’m not in blissful euphoria, but happiness is increased a whole lot more. Visual activity has increased by a lot now. Writing this on my phone, the letters have gotten a colourful edge, and some alien-like futuristic serifs. This weirds me out a bit.

4:30: Feint – Sleepless is playing, making me drift away in thoughts and space in a rather uncomfortable way. It feels like I’m dissolving, and I’m disoriented. With closed eyes, I’m moving through a grey universe. I don’t like this song and can snap out of this state by switching to another playlist after the song has ended.

4:36: Feeling physically unwell. Bubbling in stomach. I’m not sure that not having eaten anything for dinner has helped. But on the other hand, I don’t feel hungry. Nausea is bad at it again. Hiding in bed. Whole body begins shivering, to the music. Tracers while looking around make it impossible to see my room clearly.

5:36: Finally going to bed. Still stimulated, somewhat tweaky. Turning off the stereo instantly changes mood. There is movement on the hallway outside of my apartment. The noises make me somewhat paranoid, afraid and confused. However, I can quickly rationalise that these fears are unnecessary and concentrate on trying to sleep.

7:35: I haven’t slept yet. All the time, I’ve been lying in bed in a rather confused state, sometimes getting up. I consider if it would be worth turning the music on, but getting some rest seems more beneficial for the day then not getting any rest for tomorrow at all. On my whiteboard, I note down the time and the sentence: “I could kill for a benzo right now”. Of course I wouldn’t. Although I know that I don’t have alcohol at home, as I don’t really drink, I proceed to check the fridge anyways in hopes that the only bottle of vodka I ever had in it would suddenly materialise. I vape very small amounts of d8-THC, in hopes of this getting me drowsy, but it neither helps nor makes my state worse.

12:41: I don’t feel as stimulated anymore, it is around 8:00 AM in the morning. I proceed lying in bed and getting about 2 h of sleep with terrible quality. I have a terrible headache and am confused.

15:11: I get out of bed, feeling terrible, irritated and without any motivation. Well, what do you expect after a night without sleep. I still have a bad headache and no ibuprofen to take care of it. Very exhausted, unable to think straight. In the afternoon, headache disappeared, but lack of motivation and drowsiness remained. But I don’t feel like the isoproscaline is to blame here more than the lack of sleep due to unwise timing of the dose.

Summary:

For me, isoproscaline was a long acting stimulating phenethylamine with some parallels to its structural father mescaline. While it was possible to sink into thoughts, and probably also possible to direct these towards introspection or perhaps questions of the spiritual nature (in the latter I’m not really interested, I wouldn’t characterise myself as a spiritual person), it didn’t forcibly do so, and if I did get lost, it was easy to snap out of it. This made the compound a bit lacking in depth. The amount of visual activity seemed comparable to mescaline
This made the compound a bit lacking in depth. The amount of visual activity seemed comparable to mescaline
, as was the amount of nausea, although it extended longer into the trip and reappeared. The experience was not as overly euphoric as my mescaline experience, but I also had one rather meh nauseating mescaline experience too, so this very well could be based on set/setting/chance. But there definitely was a good mood to it, especially the glowing part in the beginning. Appreciation for music was increased. I was clear-headed enough to be comfortable with simple interactions with people in public if I had to, but I would probably not pass as sober in any longer communication. I don’t feel like immediately repeating the experience, as this is a rather long one and has to be taken in the morning on a day with zero responsibilities. I also have the feeling that after the trip, it may extend into some rather uncomfortable confused stimulated space, but I can’t be for sure, as lying in bed trying to sleep was certainly not the best way to phase out the trip. It certainly was still psychedelic when I tried beginning to sleep. If I repeat this substance, then probably as a mood- and experience-enhancer during a long hike alone or with a close friend at 60 mg, taken in the morning.

But I'm more interested in making the other 4-alkoxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenethylamines, and potentially some meta-escaline derivatives before.

If you have read this wall of text, thank you for your attention and interest.

Exp Year: 2023ExpID: 117167
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 24
Published: Oct 4, 2023Views: 16
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Isoproscaline (942) : General (1), Cultivation / Synthesis (31), First Times (2), Various (28)

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