Alligator Online

The pills were new, cheap and illegal. He had to try them.

Little did he know he'd want to make his first hit the last one he ever took.

"I was born into a new world, and it was slightly scary," he wrote in his online journal Tuesday. "I am attempting to give up drugs for a while. I need to take time to appreciate the world that I am living in constantly, without effects of outside substances."

The student, who asked to remain anonymous, is one of a number at UF who have tried psychoactive drugs of the "2C" family, which includes 2C-B and 2C-I.

The chemicals have become popular in last few years, partially due to their availability on the Internet.

The drugs were first created in the 1980s as a legal alternative to Ecstasy but have since been made illegal. Those that were not banned can be prosecuted via a provision in drug laws that allows similar drugs to yield equal punishment.

Some users report a sensory experience - vibrant lights, enhanced touch - with 2C-B and a more cognitive experience with 2C-I.

However, the drug is not well-studied.

UF pharmacy professor Paul Doering illustrated the drug's mystery by drawing a big red question mark on his whiteboard.

"The side of me that's scared of the dark keeps me from doing these drugs," Doering said.

The drug has the same chemical skeleton as amphetamine, Ecstasy and the human hormone adrenaline.

Because of its stimulative quality, Doering said an overdose of a 2C drug could cause a stroke or cardiac arrhythmia.

The recommended dose is between 10 and 25 milligrams.

Doering said 2C drugs stimulate the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and ephedrine, which normally maintain mental balance in the brain.

He said tolerance of the drug increases as levels of those chemicals are depleted by 2C use. As with cocaine, higher doses are then required to achieve the same chemical rush.

Doering compared repeated release of those neurotransmitters to wringing water from a sponge. After excessive use, the sponge could go dry.

Even worse, research on Ecstasy suggests a possibility that the "serotonin factory catches fire and burns out," he said.

When the sponge is wrung, though, these chemicals cause euphoria and hyperactivity in those who take the drug.

But users report experiences beyond mood lifts or energy bursts.

A UF chemistry sophomore, who asked to remain anonymous, took 20 milligrams of 2C-B last Thursday and Friday nights.

She said as the drug was taking effect, she felt so paranoid she put on sunglasses and refused to take them off.

Later, she and four other friends who were "tripping" played with a fiber optic light display, moving the lights in sync with music from a record player.

"Lights were like a major concern," she said. "Lights and music were changing our moods a lot."

She and her friends stood in the middle of a roundabout in north Gainesville and watched the lights on cars circle by.

As she was "coming down," she floated in the deep end of a swimming pool.

"It just felt really nice to be suspended," she said. "It just seemed really free."

She also reported nausea and headaches that stayed with her during the experience.

"I felt I could localize stresses in my life to a certain cloud that was in my head," she said.

This manifestation of her mental troubles may reflect the therapeutic qualities championed by the drugs' inventor, Alexander Shulgin.

Shulgin has advocated exploratory use of drugs, a policy embraced by many avid users who try new chemicals as they surface.

Doering said Shulgin, who also synthesized ecstasy and many other psychoactive drugs, "probably has taken more drugs experimentally than any other human being in the history of mankind."

"He is a brilliant chemist who sort of went over to the dark side," Doering said.