(Part 3) Top products from r/DrugNerds

You might want to read an introductory chemistry textbook. Here's the amazon page for the newest edition of the chemistry book I used. While many people don't like textbook reading, it is often times better than trying to learn things from online resources as it presented in an organized fashion to help you develop conceptual understanding of the topics. You don't need to buy the books necessarily (although that will support the authors!), there are places online where you can find books, like popular bays.

After developing a good conceptual understanding of ordinary chemistry, you should try an organic chemistry book, which will help in understanding (semi)systematic names, like 4-HO-DMT (although "tryptamine" isn't a systematic name). Systematic names are used because there are basically a limitless number of carbon compounds (aka organic compounds) which can be synthesized, so naming them with a system of rules makes it easier to share with other chemists (or those who understand systematic naming).

tldr textbooks

I haven't personally done DMT, I have only tripped on mushrooms and LSD, but my friend has experienced the same breakthrough DMT trip you described and said that after a certain point, your brain is so overloaded with sensory information that you reach a point which is called (as he described it) "The Ineffable". You are virtually unable to describe anything that is going on, you are constantly changing between intense emotional feeling, insane visuals, and profound and possibly life changing epiphany-like thoughts. While on shrooms and acid I frequently see fractals and amazing swooping mosaic patterns, and get the insane philosophic thoughts. Virtually every time I have done a hallucinogen it has changed some aspect of my life, I think it was my 3rd or so mushroom trip that was the most drastic. Anyway, there is a very interesting book on this sort of stuff that pays special attention to mushrooms called Food of The Gods by Terence Mckenna (psychonaut) and goes in depth to try to explain why humans crave these experiences of overwhelming ecstasy and how it has shaped our evolution over the span of time.

Coursera.org has a course available currently taught by UPenn called Fundamentals of Pharmacology. That may be a fun way to learn. Additionally you could order a (smaller) pharmacology textbook. However if you're into theory and mathematically describing receptor pharmacology (meticulously) then anything by Terry Kenakin would be right up your alley.

I learned from using resources available to me starting in high school with the internet (wikipedia, erowid) and the molecular mechanisms of these drugs and receptors interested me. I usually recommend this book to the interested layman as well due to its brevity and conciseness.

Otherwise, I would look around all the open courseware sites (harvard, yale, mit, caltech all offer free courses.) If you are going to college, major in biochemistry or another foundational science, not a specific subdiscipline like neuroscience or pharm directly from undergrad. (my advice particularly)

If anyone is looking for a book that will actually change your view on psychedelics, I highly recommend The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs by Daniel Perrine. Although it is literally a textbook, it's written like a story as the author himself acknowledges that drugs are not just chemical structures but have important cultural context. Here's an Amazon link for a used copy. It really did shift my perception of a lot of different things. I'm a chemistry student so it was probably particularly impactful but there's a great appendix in the back that goes over the basics of organic chemistry so you can really make yourself understand if you spend the time.

Have you ever seen the [The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0892819782/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_us?ie=UTF8) by Christian Rätsch (published in 2005)? It's very comprehensive including a lot of information on cultural context for basically all the known psychoactive plants on the planet (at the time of publication at least). My copy at home has like hundreds of sticky notes in it, haha. I definitely recommend that book.

I read Drugs and Behavior: An Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology 6th ed. for a Drugs and Behavior course. Great for an introduction.

For psychology I'd have to recommend Biopsychology. Had to read this one for Brain and Behavior.

I'll throw The Lucifer Princple in just because I love it.

Considered PiHKAL or TiHKAL? Doesn't necessarily have the good juicy chemistry, but still very interesting.

Something I haven't read but have heard good things about is The Shulgin Index. From what I've heard, it's more about the chemistry.

I highly recommend the book Uppers, Downers, All Arounders as a great intro text about psychoactive drugs. (I linked the most recent version, but older versions are still awesome and are much cheaper.)

you should read up into the organization of the visual cortex and temporal lobes - learning about the structure and function of the brain is very helpful in understanding why the psychedelic experience is the way it is. an excellent introductory book if you are interested in learning about neuroscience is Kandel's Principles of Neural Science.

http://www.amazon.ca/Principles-Neural-Science-Fourth-Edition/dp/0838577016

Take up meditation. Meditation is proven to change gene expression (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002576) and certain techniques improve memory functioning up to 10% by relieving stress and encouraging the brain to rebuild neurons. Read How God Changes Your Brain (http://www.amazon.com/How-Changes-Your-Brain-Neuroscientist/dp/0345503422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374868273&sr=8-1&keywords=how+god+changes+your+brain) for more information. Also an extremely informative book.

Taking supplements ALA/ALC has been proven to heal and stop oxidative stress in the brain, especially in the elderly where their body's natural production of Alpha Lipoic Acid has slowed. After taking these supplements for 30 days, there were noted improvements in mood and memory function, even in following months when supplementation ended. These two supplements, in my opinion, are critical to take when rolling too. Doesn't hurt to try them out, ALA even helps oxidative stress everywhere in the body, not just the brain.

Culture you say? Well, this was a fun read: "The Curious World of Drugs and Their Friends: A Very Trippy Miscellany"

A rise in "chemsex"? The Greeks and Romans drank spiked wine and had giant religious sex orgies. You know, the good old days. I mean what else were they doing to do with all the opium, blue lotus, and half naked slaves...


The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization

Check out Perry's Chemical Engineers Handbook. It has a ton of easy to follow descriptions, but also has in-depth mathematical and chemical models. Buy a used copy, though. It covers simple stills, distillation, hplc, recrystallization, sparging, stripping, solid and liquid phase extraction, and many more.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule

He think he goes more into detail about it in his book, "The Rose of Paracelsus".

This one?

Not sure if this is what your looking for but ...

Buzzed

Illegal Drugs

From Chocolate to Morphine

"I'm on a 10mg daily dose right now, do I even have anything to worry about?"

Longterm benzo use is going to make your anxiety vastly worse than it was to start with. That's why you're never supposed to take them for more than ten days. Time for you to find a new doctor.

But if you want an answer to your question, yes they cause brain damage, and they're also extremely addicting -- more than heroin. (Whereas heroin withdrawals are over in three or four days, longterm benzo users are often completely unable to sleep or think and function properly for up to a full year.)

If you want a good book on the subject, I'd recommend Anatomy of an Epidemic:

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347671582&sr=1-1&keywords=anatomy+of+an+epidemic

As long as you're not using the book Psychedelic Chemistry to determine your doses...

From some reviews on Amazon:

> Inaccurate information written by unqualified author, caveat emptor.....Some information is accurate but there also seems to be an equal amount of erroneous data...

>The way that it describes exact measurements on how many people would get "stoned" from a certain amount of something is very entertaining.

>A largely irrelevant, outdated "underground" publication... Legal information is extremely outdated and many "recipes" contain dangerous typos a la the Anarchist's Cookbook that will most likely lead to failure of synthesis or death of the chemist if actually attempted.

I'm imagining this guy going "Oh shit, did I take too much?"... grabbing the book to double-check but it, maybe, has the dosage wrong by an order of magnitude or two so he's like "Phew, no need to go to hospital. I'll be fine. I'll just lay down here for a while.".