2C-B (Nexus) - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

In the middle and late 1980s, 2C-B became an alternative or replacement for ecstasy (MDMA). Ecstasy was classified as an illegal drug in the United States in 1985. Switching one drug for another without the user's knowledge is a common and very dangerous practice in the world of synthesized drugs. "Drug quality may vary significantly," stated the authors of the Drug Intelligence Brief "An Overview of Club Drugs." "Substitute drugs often are sold when suppliers are unable to provide the drug currently in demand." This increases the likelihood of an overdose in unsuspecting users.

2C-B was not really used as a street drug in its own right until the early 1990s. It was sold in adult book and video stores, drug paraphernalia stores called "head" shops, bars, and nightclubs. Drug enforcement officials noticed the trend in 2C-B abuse and set out to stop it. Even before 2C-B was officially classified as an illegal drug in the United States in 1995, DEA agents closed 2C-B manufacturing laboratories in California and Arizona. In late 2004, 2C-B resurfaced in central New York. News 10 Now reporter Sarah Buynovsky referred to it as "a new and dangerous drug." She added that "2C-B is often homemade in labs and [is] difficult to track down."

Illicit drugs like 2C-B are produced in illegal labs. Drugmakers often use abandoned, boarded-up houses as places to create their product. AP/Wide World Photos.
Illicit drugs like 2C-B are produced in illegal labs. Drugmakers often use abandoned, boarded-up houses as places to create their product. AP/Wide World Photos.

The 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) Study

The results of the 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, conducted by the University of Michigan (U of M), were released to the public on December 21, 2004. The study is sponsored by research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Since 1991, U of M has tracked patterns of drug use and attitudes toward drugs among students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. (Prior to that, from 1975 to 1990, the MTF survey was limited to twelfth graders.)

The 2004 MTF survey found that, overall, hallucinogen use among students at all three grade levels was down slightly. Still, the percentage of teens that had tried hallucinogens at least once remained very high—a trend that began in the mid-1980s. 2C-B use is not tracked specifically in the MTF survey, but is grouped in with statistics for "hallucinogens other than LSD." According to MTF charts for 2003 to 2004, about 1.7 percent of tenth and twelfth graders admitted to using hallucinogens at least once a month. About 4 percent of tenth graders and 6 percent of twelfth graders reported hallucinogen use "in the last twelve months."

The perceived availability of hallucinogens (the ease with which seniors said they would be able to get the drugs) was very high as well. About half of those surveyed said it would be "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain hallucinogens. It is important to stress, however, that these respondents were not basing their answers specifically on the availability of 2C-B, but on hallucinogens in general.

The MTF survey does not track drug use among people after their high school years. As of 2005, data on 2C-B usage in the general population revealed that "the typical user is a young, white, college-educated and Websavvy person," noted Lallanilla in his ABC News report. A large number of 2C-B users also take other drugs, which increases their risks for physical and mental side effects.