What is the minimum information one should strive for before trying a new substance/combination?

• Intensity. The experience had with a substance is far more likely to be dangerous to the mind (causing trauma, HPPD, psychosis, amnesia, and more) if one tries to take a substance with an intensity too high for oneself to yet tolerate. For this, diphenhydramine is a great example. DPH is a very intense drug; not to mention dangerous and a deliriant. It is very common for people to receive schizo, HPPD, and more as """bonus prizes""" after taking the drug, which I am very sure is due to this phenomenon. This is a very important fact that is too often overlooked, which is why we (Azsula, Fluffkin) are providing as much information as we have on it, here. After around 1.00, I would recommend perhaps not going up more than 0.30-0.50 in rating at one time. Furthermore, please make sure oneself is comfortable with what was experienced before heightening intensity of an experience more. If one requires an in-between step between intensities of substances, one may use combinations of substances (carefully) to achieve a more intense experience.


• Safety. For example, I will reference ethanol. Despite how commonly this drug is used, it is a very unsafe substance, with the potential to plausibly cause cancer in just a single use of it. It is very important for oneself to be aware of informations like this, BEFORE trying a substance, so as to be perfectly aware of what oneself is taking risk of. Furthermore, being harmful to others is objectively just as bad. Apply the ideal of "Risk v.s. Reward". Is it worth more than the potential dangers? One must decide such things for oneself.


• Reports. Not only are trip reports fun to read (at least in my primary field of researchーdeliriants), but they, along with lists of potential symptoms, such as shown on PsychonautWiki, provide invaluable insight into what one may experience.


• Dosing. This involves not only the dosage levels for the specific drug(s) being administered (which can also fluctuate based on weight, enzyme deficiencies, and other factors, which is why one should always try an 'allergy dose' first (1/10 of the minimum effective dose)), but also knowing HOW to dose different substances. Don't 'eyeball' until you'd be fine with losing yours (and dying). To illustrate the importance of this, I will use an example of a semi-recent event that took place at r/DXM on Reddit. Someone posted a picture of RoboCough's freebase RoboTablets. There are 100 pills in each bottle, totaling at 3g of freebase DXM. Just about a third of this would be enough to easily, feasibly be within fatal overdose ranges. This person claimed to have taken 90 pills, totaling at 2.7g of freebase DXM. The person was allegedly misdirected by a friend, or some similar situation, and likely was meant to purchase the cough syrup RoboCough sells; where taking the entire bottle probably wouldn't cause fatality. (But not for sure!ーKeep allergy dosing in mind!) This person is presumed to be dead and a digital funeral was held in their honor. Fluffkin has even accidentally overdosed on freebase DXM by confusing unclear information given by an online calculator by TripSit. (But thankfully was aiming for a lower dose, so the overdose was not fatal, but it could have gone very badly, still, with increased intensity.) There is another instance Fluff fell into this trouble, so I will stress to ALWAYS triple-check your info.


• Verification. Is it LSD or nBOMe-25i? Is it cocaine or some fentanyl-infused mess? Possibly worse, just crushed up acetaminophen?! (This is pretty common these days.) Even if what one is buying is clearly labeled, but not regulated, how can one know how safe the substance is without proof? For example, something that is gaining some traction these days is O-acetyl-Δ#-THC. They are acetylated compounds, which will usually use a particularly-highly toxic chemical in their production. Every non-natural substance is subject to possibility of this issue, unless we can somehow be completely sure no toxic chemicals would've been used. This means that, to ensure one's safety, one should find some type of certificate that shows testing was performed on any substance. If the substances are regulated by governmental institutions, then one does not need to worry about this, probably.

Written by Azsula the Bee, finished at 438 / 1031 AZ, 14 October 2022.

P.S., citations, pictures, and links will be added soon.

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