[ziroshima]

Interesting to see this now. As a teenager I experimented with DXM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextromethorphan) as a hallucinogen. You could buy it in powdered form over the internet for a while, or one could just take corricidin pills or find certain cough syrups that didn't have acetaminophen. Anyways, it was well known on usenet/IRC at the time that drinking grapefruit juice prior to ignesting the drug would enhance its effects.

[quaquaqua1]

Not related to grapefruit but moving to North Carolina for college in 2010 re-ignited my love affair with DXM in the form of Vicks 44 Berry Blast, which was about 300mg of DXM in a refreshingly horrible syrup form factor with 0 guafenesin, acetominophen or any other things that would get in the way of pure rolling.

Coupled with whatever substance du jour that college me was able to lay hands on, DXM was guaranteed to have me stumbling and hallucinating like the true futureless human I aspired to be, for the low low price of $7.65.

So, hats off to the NC state legislature for giving me some cheap thrills through college just outside my dorm room, while the state liquor store was a few miles away. You saved my liver, non-sarcastically, and allowed me to experience first hand the precipice of drug culture so I could willingly walk away from it based on personal exposure.

I also can't stand the sight of cherry flavored anything anymore :)

[sithadmin]

>You saved my liver, non-sarcastically

FWIW, it's not particularly difficult to cause liver damage with dextromethorphan at recreational dosages

[bigwavedave]

Uhhhhh as far as I know, acetaminophen is the damaging agent, not dxm; it's often packaged with it for pain relief in cold/flu medications... but dxm itself doesn't damage the liver. Dxm has been shown to do some weird stuff with Olney's Lesions, but doesn't really impact the liver.

[anon9001]

As far as I know, Olney's lesions have only ever been shown at heroic dosages in mice.

It's also worth noting that DXM is being studied in research as an antidepressant. I'm aware of at least one company working on it in combination with wellbutrin: https://axsome.com/axs-pipeline/about-axs-05/

DXM has a pronounced antidepressant effect that lasts for days after a recreational dose. Users refer to it as an afterglow instead of a hangover. This effect is fairly well known but not currently commercialized. It's also a similar drug to ketamine, which is also being used as an antidepressant in medical settings now.

From my own anecdotal experience, I'd probably have killed myself in my early 20s without DXM to give some relief. Sometimes I'll still grab a bottle of it if I'm in a particularly dark place. It's sometimes a pleasant experience, sometimes an unpleasant one, but it always lifts depression for a few days.

From what I've been able to understand over the years from the literature, nobody's died on DXM alone without taking extreme doses (anything over 500mg is crazy IMO). Some people have died from taking products that contained other active ingredients. CCCs were common before people realized the antihistamine overdose is harmful. Tylenol is common in those products too and could be used by someone uninformed, though that's also true for most painkillers. Even in extreme cases of daily high dosages (which doesn't make sense because of tolerance, but people are crazy), organs don't seem to be harmed.

Obviously chugging cough syrup has a questionable reputation at best, but we'll be seeing more people become aware of it in the next few years as drugs get mixed with DXM and patented as anti-depressants.

There's also at least one company on Amazon selling 500mg+ bottles that look like they're "4 hour energy"-sized, with DXM as the only active ingredient, complete with headshop-aesthetic packaging: https://www.amazon.com/Cough-Suppressant-RoboCough-2-Pack/dp... Questionable for sure, but definitely less sketchy than the extractions and powders of years ago. I feel like I've seen less about DXM as cannabis has become more legal and as more odd chemicals, both legal and illegal, have become easier to order online.

edit: just to be clear, I haven't tried that product on amazon, I was just amazed to see that it exists and has such positive reviews.

[mruts]

DXM is really strange. Not to mention the robo walk.. got in big trouble when I was a teenager on that stuff. Absolutely impossible to hide, physically at least.

[anon9001]

Citation needed. DXM is often packaged with Tylenol, which I believe explains all the liver failure cases we've seen regarding DXM abuse.

[quaquaqua1]

I'd be curious to hear what medical evidence is available that could provide a dosage and frequency that specifically points to DXM and not anything else.

Back when I was on the forums at that time, we were much more worried about frying our minds with dosing 4000mg and disappearing for days at a time into the strangest and scariest hallucinations you could imagine.

[nisten]

I love you guys.

[hombre_fatal]

I had just come out of the peak of an acid trip so intense that I was in the fetal position under my covers. 1-2 hours had passed but it felt like an entire day. And it took me 10 minutes just to finally message my friend the profound admission: "im trippin".

I was pretty hungry after all this and glad the peak was behind me. Got a grapefruit out of the fridge. Wasn't even halfway through when I found myself back in the peak. Had to crawl back into my bed where the curtains were closed and endured another 20 minutes of that.

Grapefruit + <drug> has always been the source of superstitious arguments in uni among my drug-using friends. Does it enhance the effect? Kill the effect? Do anything at all? But my acid experience confirmed one pairing beyond all doubt.

[mayniac]

I vaguely remember grapefruits being Hunter S Thompson's favourite fruit. I don't think it was for the taste.

And your experience matches mine. Washing down MDMA with grapefruit juice definitely makes it more intense.

[htfu]

Inhibiting CYP3A4 should definitely increase LSD AUC, but it can't magically conjure more of a substance out of thin air after it's all already entered your bloodstream - only slow down breakdown. Albeit the apparent effect would be the former, if ingested beforehand and/or dealing with something with very slow uptake and high first-pass metabolism.

In any case it's not something that plays out so quickly.

Waving in and out of tripping balls a couple hours in sounds pretty par for the course, I'd say :)

[cwkoss]

Perhaps changing the ph of the bloodstream could also have an effect? Would presumably increase solubility? Lots of lore around citrus with psychedelics, seems plausible but would be nice to have more research on the mechanism.

[Scoundreller]

If the pH of your bloodstream goes out of whack enough to impact solubility, you’re long dead.

[cwkoss]

Thanks, you are right. Looks like blood pH must remain between 7.35 and 7.45 or else serious negative effects occur. Solubility change would be negligible.