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A Cautionary Tale
5-MeO-DMT & Alcohol
Citation:   Bad_Night_In_Boulder. "A Cautionary Tale: An Experience with 5-MeO-DMT & Alcohol (exp76503)". Erowid.org. May 4, 2010. erowid.org/exp/76503

 
DOSE:
  repeated oral Alcohol  
  15 mg insufflated 5-MeO-DMT (powder / crystals)
BODY WEIGHT: 150 lb
I woke up in the hospital this morning, after taking approximately 15mg of 5 MeO DMT and drinking quite a few beers (like 9 ish).

We'd been drinking for about 4 hours, just back from the bars and the topic of drugs came up. All of us have a fondness for psychedelics, and one of my friends mentioned he had 5 MeO DMT. My other friend is a chemist, and has produced other drugs in the past, so he immediately became curious. I'd never heard of it, but they described it as being like salvia but stronger and slightly longer lasting. M really advised us against trying it while we were so hammered, but G was pretty persuasive. They weighed out about 45mg, and I divided it up into two lines on a piece of paper. One was about a third of the dose, and I took that one. The other 30mg, G snuffed up.

The onset was quick, and we went out to the front porch (why I don't know). G laid down on the front stoop and started moaning. I was enjoying the interesting glow about the shadow cast from a lattice, but when I tried speaking to him, nothing came back. I knew things were going wrong when I asked him if he was ok, and he told me 'No.'

From there things happened exceptionally fast. I ran around to check him out and his eyes were rolling into the back of his head. For some reason, I ran into the house (to get help from our other passed-out friend), and when I came back out, G was seizuring on the ground. I immediately got down and tried to hold him still and put his head on my lap. I was yelling, 'HEY. HEY!! Stay with us man! HEY! Look at me, talk to me buddy!'

Then he stopped seizuring, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his neck went limp. I couldn't find a pulse. As far as I knew, my friend just died in my arms.

Even completely sober, this would be a terrifying experience, but in the middle of a powerful dose of 5 MeO DMT, it was absolutely horrifying. I stood up. M was already on the phone with 911. I felt completely drained. All I could think about was about how sad this was. His life over, my life completely destroyed. I started walking up the street, in a haze of the most profound sorrow I'd ever experienced. I kept thinking about all the decisions that had led to this point, how every one of them contributed to my arrival here and now. I really wanted to talk to my mom, and I was calling her furiously (but having a lot of trouble operating the touch screen on my phone).

That's when the fear set in. Suddenly I thought I needed to run and hide, that the police were coming for me. I ran into a neighbors side yard, and stooped behind a bush. As I waited to hear what people were doing, I lost any awareness of what was going on and where I was. I was having trouble remembering what was happening, what I was supposed to be doing. I thought I saw a cop car drive by (which may be true, they arrived around that time), and I thought they were looking for me. I sat, waited, and forgot.

When I walked out, I heard someone say 'Hey, are you ok? Do you need help?' It was one of my neighbors. His voice, soft and calm, made all the difference in the world.

'Yeah. I do. I think I just saw my friend die. He was in my arms on the patio. We took some bad drugs, and he had a seizure. This is the worst night of my entire life.'

'Oh my god. That's horrible.' I could feel his empathy. He was very reassuring. 'You should go be with him. He would want you there. You'll regret it your entire life if you don't. You really need to go back to him.'

He was right and I knew it. I started walking back down to my house, maybe 100 yards away. There were tons of emergency responders, and a fire truck was pulling off. I walked in to find two police officers and a couple paramedics talking to my friends in the living room. They were waiting for me, and I sat down and talked to them on the couch. G hadn't died. He was stable and they'd taken him to the hospital. They were concerned about me, and I was clearly pretty shaken up. I told them I didn't think I needed to go to the hospital, so they packed up and told us to keep our cell phones on.

Almost as soon as they left, I felt nauseous and ran outside to throw up. For some reason I went around to the apartment that's attached to the house, and started yelling for my friend that lived in there.

'We took bad drugs. G died, and I'm not doing so well,' I told her. Of course she flipped out, while I started throwing up all over the yard. I started yelling for the paramedics.

'HEY! I need help! HEY!' brought a flashlight from the front of the house.

'Are you ok? Do you want to go to the hospital?'

'YES. I'm not ok.' I told them. They helped get me to the front of the house while another paramedic was dispatched. They started checking me out. I was throwing up and mostly unresponsive, but I was able to climb into the ambulance. My friends watched as I drove off.

Once we got there, I calmed down significantly. I was sobering up and feeling really stupid for everything. They still gave me a shot of Ativan to calm me down (I kept asking them for thorazine, don't know why...). Not long after that, I passed out.

When I woke up, I could see the contempt on the faces of the staff. They thought I was pretty dumb, and they were right. About the only thing I did right was hold my buddy's head up while he was seizuring. G was in a room around the corner, and he was fine. We both were discharged about the same time, and we walked back to my house a few blocks away.

We did a lot of dumb things that night, not the least of which was taking a really powerful compound while we were drunk. Someone easily could have died or had serious, permanent complications.

Some lessons (notes to myself):

-Know what you're taking. I had no idea how serious this drug was, so I was completely unprepared for its effects.
-Don't mix drugs and alcohol. I'm usually so good about this rule, but this one time really cost me. (To the tune of the $600 medical/amblance bill I get to pay).
-Have someone that can help if things go wrong. My friends being mostly sober and not on the drug I was on were critical to making this a story with a happy ending.
-BE CAREFUL WITH DOSAGE!!! I can't stress that enough. My roommate has a good scale that measures very small weights pretty damn accurately, but if you don't know how much you're supposed to be taking, it won't do you much good. Be sure, start small, and be extra cautious the first time you take something.
-Just because it's legal doesn't mean it won't get you really messed up.
-Be prepared. Take precautions. It's important.

Exp Year: 2009ExpID: 76503
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 4, 2010Views: 16,462
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5-MeO-DMT (58), Alcohol (61), Police / Customs (60) : Combinations (3), Bad Trips (6), Various (28)

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Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the authors who submit them. Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.


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