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Smart Drug Trials
2C-D
Citation:   raybeez. "Smart Drug Trials: An Experience with 2C-D (exp33689)". Erowid.org. May 18, 2004. erowid.org/exp/33689

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DOSE:
15 mg oral 2C-D (liquid)
A moderately large supply of 2C-D HCl was obtained yesterday. The crystals were white and fluffy, and were found to be soluble in distilled water, 75% ethanol, and 95% ethanol.

I am a full time university student in the sciences, and decided to try this compound for its reported 'smart drug' potential. I didn't really have any great expectations for this drug, but figured I would test it out over a range of doses and try to characterize its effects as best as possible. If it turned out to be successful at increasing cognitive ability, I would try using it for studying for some of my final exams at the end of the month.

100mg of the compound was weighed out on a scale accurate to 0.1mg, and dissolved in 20mL of non-denatured, 95% ethanol, resulting in a 5mg/mL solution.

Trial 1:

1mL (5mg) of the 2C-D solution was taken orally, at my research lab at school. I didn't expect much from this dosage; it was more just to confirm that I wasn't going to have an anaphylactic reaction to it. Dose was taken 2 hours following a light breakfast.

Some apparent effects emerged around 45min after ingestion. I found it was a little difficult to concentrate, and I felt a touch lightheaded. I felt a little spaced out and anxious for about an hour, following which I felt fine again. No real mental alterations were noticed, and within an hour and half to two hours of feeling spacey, I was back to normal again.

Trial 2:

3mL (15mg) ingested about 6 hours following the previous 1mL dose. Stomach completely empty.

Within 15 to 20 minutes, I began feeling slightly intoxicated, and by one hour the effects of the 2C-D were definitely noticeable.

I was sitting with a group of friends, one of which who had also taken the same dosage as myself. Conversations were extremely difficult to understand and follow. I had no problem relaying my thoughts, but I found other peoples conversations extremely confusing. I noticed extreme distortions in my sense of time. Conversations would seem to go on for 20 or 30 minutes, but looking at the clock, I would find that only 1 or 2 minutes had gone by.

Slight visual distortions were apparent. I would frequently notice shimmering disturbances in my peripheral vision, but as soon as I focused on them, they would disappear. It definitely seemed like I was on the verge of breaking into mild hallucinations. At one point I tried watching a television set that was present in the room, and the images on the TV kept alternating between being sped up or slowed down. After a few minutes, it made me feel kind of nauseous, so I got up and went somewhere else.

I ran into a professor whom I work for, and started talking to him about a recent set of experiments. I felt as though I was speaking on autopilot, as though one part of my brain was doing the talking, but the conscious part of my brain was off in some other place. My professor then proceeded to outline a new experiment to try. I nodded as though I understood, but again, had an extremely difficult time registering and comprehending what he was trying to say. The next day, I found that I could only recall fragments of what he had said, and had to go and ask him to repeat himself (luckily, he’s very absentminded, and forgot even talking to me the day before).

A moderate degree of pleasurable body sensations was present as well. I found my self often laughing or giggling inappropriately, and just felt all in all stupid. I also seemed to have a high degree of 'mental restlessness'; thoughts in my head were jumping around from topic to topic.

The effects would come in waves. With each wave, the effects, confusion, body sensations, etc., would build until a peak, then would gradually diminish leaving me feeling almost normal. Then the next wave would come, with a slightly higher peak then the last.

It had been two hours since ingestion, and so far found 2C-D to be lacking as a 'smart drug'. Although fun, it seemed to just be scrambling my thoughts, and making it very difficult to understand spoken conversation. I made my way off to an afternoon seminar in molecular biology, and figured I was in for more of the same.

As the lights dimmed in the lecture hall, and the instructor's PowerPoint presentation began, I found my concentration to be extremely focused on the written words on the projection screen. The instructor's voice was hard to focus on, but the figures and text being presented on the projector screen seemed to burn themselves into my head.

Normally, I find the content in this seminar course very difficult. I need to take extremely detailed notes, which I then typically follow up with detailed background reading on the topic being covered before I can fully understand the material. On 2C-D however, I found myself extremely attuned to the visual material being presented. I took no notes, and was able to comprehend everything, which really surprised me.

Near the end of the lecture, (t=3hrs) the effects began to fade, and by t=3.5 or t=4 hours, I was completely sober with no apparent after effects (except for a mild headache which I attribute to not having eaten for 10 hours). Overall, I saw some potential with this drug in being able to enhance my ability to comprehend and understand written words. At times however it was extremely difficult to focus, and I found conversation hard to understand. I decided that I would try repeating this dosage again at a later date.

Trial 3:

3mL (15mg) of 2C-D ingested one week following my last trial. Stomach completely empty, and I’m alone in my apartment.
I had been trying to read a paper published in an academic science journal for the past three hours, and was having a very difficult time understanding the content of it. To make things worse, I had to give a short talk on the paper in less than two days. I decided to try taking the 2C-D to see if I would have any more luck trying to understand the paper, and perhaps starting to put together my presentation.

The experience, time of onset, duration and sensations were identical to the previous trial, so I won’t bother discussing them. About an hour after I had taken the drug, I tried to tackle the paper again. To my amazement, I was able to read and comprehend a good majority of the paper after spending only twenty minutes on it. I pulled out my laptop and started taking jotting down notes on the paper, but within ten or fifteen minutes, my concentration broke, and I went off to do something else. I tried returning to the paper numerous times the remainder of the time I felt the effects of the drug, but found concentration impossible. Of note, I again found I had a mild headache after the drug wore of.

The next day though, I still remembered my “insights” into the article from the night before, and with about an hour of re-reading and looking into a few of the articles references, I felt confident enough to make my presentation right then and there.

Conclusions:

Overall, the high from the 2C-D is light, enjoyable, and not too hard on the psyche or body. Comedown and after-effects were non-existent for me, with the exception of a mild headache. This drug is fun to use recreationally, and I can see myself using it again for such purposes.

In terms of being a smart drug, I found some potential for 2C-D. The primary ways that it seemed to improve me mentally were my abilities to process, remember, and understand visual information such as text or pictures. I found that in other ways however that it was very cognitively impairing. My conversational ability was horrible while high, and I had a very hard time communicating thoughts to others. It was also very difficult to process conversation, and I found myself not remembering lots of what had been said to me. In addition, it seriously impaired my ability to concentrate on things. The drug gave me mental speediness that resulted in really noticeable ADD.

In conclusion, I definitely won’t be using this substance for any of my serious studying for my final exams at the end of April. I found that for me, the only real benefit was finding ways to understand and remember new and old visual stimuli, including written text. The volume of information that I need to learn for my final exams requires the ability to focus for hours at a time. I would use this drug again both recreationally, and perhaps to get across temporary roadblocks in my understanding of things, but not as a study aid.

Exp Year: 2004ExpID: 33689
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 18, 2004Views: 28,268
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2C-D (103) : General (1), Various (28)

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