Bad Experience with DXM powder
I've been experimenting with DXM for about three months now after
serendipitously discovering it when I swigged a bottle of cough syrup in
the middle of the night to quell a hacking cough. As I tossed and
turned in bed the symptoms started hitting me and I knew right away
something psychoactive was going on. I had just gotten over meningitis
a few months earlier and feared I was having some sort of relapse.
The next morning I dug the bottle out of the trash and began
researching the active ingredients. It was then that I discovered
William White's DXM FAQ and became intrigued.
I've experienced THC and psilocybin but the DXM experience is
completely different. I personally enjoy the experience and feel that I
can use it responsibly to enhance my self awareness with an occasional
recreational indulgence. Since that first night, I have experimented
with DXM on numerous occasions. Most of the trips have been very
positive but there does seem to be a wide margin of variety to the
outcome.
I prefer to ingest DXM via Sucrets cough drops (cherry flavor) and
have even grown fond of the taste. However, I recently decided to get
right to the source and called up a chemical company that listed DXM for
sale on their internet catalog. To my surprise they cheerfully took my
name and credit card info over the phone and within the week UPS
delivered a small, brown, glass bottle containing 100 grams of DXM. I
then bought a cheap Deering gram scale and eagerly delved into further
experimenting.
The DXM powder is white and very fine with no immediate odor. It
could easily be mistaken for cocaine cut at first sight. But I soon
found out that the first problem was the taste. Pure DXM has to be one
of the worst tasting things I've ever put in my mouth. What's worse is
the fact that the taste lingers and almost nothing will get it off the
taste buds.
The first dose I measured out was 600mg or roughly 1/4 tsp. I held
the measuring bowl up to my mouth and tossed the powder as far back
behind my tongue as I could. The horrid taste made me shudder and gag
for a good 2-3 minutes until it subsided. I tried drinking various
liquids to wash the taste out and finally found some relief with some
sour Jolly Rancher candies.
The effects seemed to hit me much quicker than the cough drops and
within 30 minutes I was hitting the first plateau. I dimmed the lights
and prepared myself for the usual mental ingression as I settled back on
the couch with some ambient music. I noticed the onset of nausea much
more acutely than with syrup or drops. To my surprise, the trip leveled
out around the second plateau and stayed there. No visuals or spacial
distortions. I was somewhat disappointed but did note that there was
almost no hangover effects the next day whatsoever.
Afterwards I tried varying the amount of DXM and also took note of
when and how much I had eaten before. I made sure to wait at least a
week between trips to ensure I had recovered. I found that the powder
did work if there was not a lot of food in my stomach. Maybe the
absorption rate in the small intestine and bodily conversion to DM (as
opposed to DXM) had something to do with it.
What concerned me was the degree of variation in results. The cough
drops had always produced a steady and predictable trip. Also, the
powder DXM tended to produce some acute gastric distress and cramps.
And then there was the taste. By now I was developing an aversion to it
and would shudder each time I looked at the bottle or even thought about
it. I even tried diluting it in various liquid beverages but to no
avail. There had to be some way around it, some way to ingest the
chemical and bypass the side effects.
I went to the store and bought a package of fruit roll ups. The
fruit candy came rolled in thin strips about one inch wide. I measured
out some DXM powder then tore off a three inch long strip of fruit roll
up and creased the middle like a rolling paper. I then poured the
powder into the roll up and folded the ends together and made a small
ball of it with the powder inside.
The fruit roll passed plaeasantly over my tongue and went down
without a hitch. No hint of yucky DXM. This seemed like the perfect
delivery method. No nasty syrup, no gross powder, no sucking cough
drops for an hour. In a short time I was getting a buzz and feeling
quite pleased with myself. Then things got really bad. All of a
sudden, I felt the urge to vomit immediately. I ran to the bathroom and
up came the contents of my stomach and then some. The only consolation
was that I was too stoned from the DXM to care about or perceive the
nausea.
A few more ill fated attempts with the fruit rolls confirmed my
suspicions. For some reason my body was ejecting the pure DXM. I had
been using between 500-800 mgs for these tests. As soon as the gelled
fruit roll disolved and the powder hit my stomach it was hurl city.
This also happened to my girlfriend so I know it wasn't just a
particular reaction on my part.
Here are some journal notes from one of the experiences:
22:20 Ingetsed 500mg of DXM-HCL rolled into a fruit roll up candy.
Dose should be equal to 4.9 mg/kg. Drank lots of water and took
ant-acid tablets. Ate a full meal earlier at 19:00.
23:23 Experiencing mild stomach pain. Simialr to growling feeling of
an empty stomach. Also notice some mild and subtle anxiety. Noted some
dizziness just now as I looked away from the book. As I finished the
above sentence, I definitely am noticing a shift in awareness. Light
headedness akin to a fever.
23:30 Dizziness and a feeling of intoxication are increasing. Mild
sense of nausea is building and a burning feeling on the inside of my
scalp. I suspect nausea may be related to focusing problems with optic
nerves. Am going to try switching to low light conditions. Took two
more ant-acids. Feel drunk trying to walk.
23:40 Noticed pupil dialation in the mirror. Level 1 effects are very
pronounced. Gastric distress seems to be sporadic. Slight burning
feeling in my brain. having trouble focusing on anything further than
arms length. Intoxication seems to be overtaking me. This may be the
last entry for a while.
00:07 Just vomited but now I feel much better. have been sitting in
the dim candle lit room listening to OMD. Nausea was coming in waves
and making my mouth water. While in the bathroom I also noticed that my
eyes were very red and dialated. Experiencing hand-eye coordination
impairment and a sense of time distortion. Feel deeply involved into
level 2.
00:23 Getting hard to write. Feel much better after purging my
stomach. Experiencing peripheral visons and hallucinations. Medium and
long range vision is very distorted. Logic becoming abstract.
01:10 Feel a distinct buzz. More like an intellectual smart-ass
drunkeness. Am going to attempt to dim lights again and reestablish a
heady trip.
01:18 Noticed that my experience has been entirely cerebral up to now
and has not included any visuals or hallucinations. I am going to see
if the effects increase. If not then I may ingest Sucrets cough drops
to increase dosage. Will wait till 02:00 for visual effects. If none
noted by then I will ingest the cough drops.
01:48 Began ingesting cherry flavored Sucrets cough drops at 01:44.
The entire bag should contain 300mg of DXM. However, since I threw up
earlier I now have no accurate way to measure the amount in my system.
02:33 Just finished the last of the cough drops. I still feel just
mildly drunk. If anything I feel as if I've sobered a bit. Very
disappointing. I hope the Sucrets work.
03:15 Final entry. Very disappointing, most effects have completely
worn off. Instead of the usual sense of dreamlike consciousness I am
feeling drunk and sleepy. Not at all the desired result. Overall the
experiment was very discouraging.
As the notes show, my results with powder DXM were inconsistent and
at times unpleasant. However, some of the trips were just fine and
seemed to work as well as the Sucrets. I'm not sure but maybe the
powder form has excess bromide salts. Sometimes the nausea was
accompanied by a tense feeling in the back of the jaws not unlike the
feeling I got when I sucked on too much rock salt as a child.
My overall opinion about using powder is slightly negative. The
powder was expensive ($250 for the 100 gram bottle), tasted like android
shit, caused more pronounced stomach trouble, and for some weird reason
gave inconsistent results. My advice based on my experiences would be
to stick to syrups, gel caps, or cough drops.
-Melvin
©1998 The Third Plateau
Back to the main page