Mephedrone

 Mephedrone (aka 4-methylmethcathinone)

Max Volume aka M-Cat 

The trip:

  • feels euphoric, somewhere between cocaine and MDMA, but different than either. Closer to MDMA, but just as expensive or more than coke!
  • is much better than MDMA for sex (most people on MDMA don’t get horny at all, some can’t get erections — no problems like that here)
  • trip comes on and ends very suddenly (bang, there it is… bang, where’d it go?)
  • lots of people say it gives them a compulsion to redose, but each time is less effective
  • burns like hell when snorted and tastes disgusting (especially the drip) but feels great enough that lots of people think the initial pain is worth it
  • strong smell (one user on Erowid compared it to ammonia)
  • fast onset (10-20 minutes), medium-short duration (2-3 hours), somewhat of an unpleasant crash for about an hour, not much of a hangover at all
  • a common dose with pretty decent effects seems to be 100 mg. 50 mg seems too mild for some and 200 can be overwhelming.

Health effects:

  • very caustic (ie, it burns), so causes quite a lot of damage to the nose, sinus and back of the throat when snorted
  • high potential for addiction, seems a lot worse for that than MDMA, partly because of the short duration and sudden end making people want to redose
  • rather toxic. LD-50 is totally unknown and we only have a vague idea of the long term health effects, but everything we know suggests it’s potentially bad news. Handful of deaths, lots more hospitalizations, plenty more adverse reactions that didn’t seek medical help
  • one of its metabolites, 4-methylephedrine, is a potent vasoconstrictor, which means it causes your blood vessels to squeeze up, which means that it’s really dangerous to use if you’ve got high blood pressure or are pregnant (vasoconstrictors during pregnancy lead to the fetus not getting enough blood supply, leading in turn to poor development and low birth weight)
  • in the a lot of the described adverse reactions, people report skin turning blue or purple. If you notice this happening, get help immediately!

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