Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

DMT has never been as popular among drug abusers as LSD and other hallucinogens. Its delivery system is more complicated. Its effects usually last less than an hour, although the abuser can experience longer periods of confusion afterward.

Chemists constantly tinker with the compound, however. In October of 2002, the DEA announced the seizure of two new compounds: 5-MeO-DIPT, known on the street as "foxy" or "foxy methoxy," and alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT). Both of these compounds are closely related to DMT, but they can be used in tablet form.

Tablets or the chemicals used to create the tablets have been found in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Some of the drug seizures by law enforcement officials have occurred at all-night clubs or at raves, wild overnight dance parties that typically involve huge crowds of people, loud techno music, and illegal drug use.

People creating foxy or AMT may believe they are not breaking the law because these hallucinogens are not specifically covered by the Controlled Substances Act. However, it is against the law to manufacture or sell a "controlled substance analogAny chemical compound that acts on the body the same way a controlled substance does.." Anyone buying, selling, or using foxy and AMT may face the same penalties as someone buying, selling, or using DMT.

About the Toads…

The Bufo marinus toad is a native of the Americas and one of the toads that secretes DMT in its venom. When interest in hallucinogens was at its height in the 1960s and early 1970s, some people in Australia (where the toads had been imported) and America actually licked the toads in an effort to get high. What the toad-lickers quickly discovered was that Bufo marinus venom contains many ingredients besides DMT. People became violently ill with heart palpitations, drooling, and intense, long-lasting headaches.

Others tried drying and smoking the venom of Bufo alvarius, a desert toad found in California, Arizona, and parts of Mexico. To quote Paul M. Gahlinger in Illegal Drugs: "Smoking toad … proved to be too powerful an experience for most people. Besides the obvious difficulty of getting and handling the toad, the intoxication was too intense, with too many physical side effects, to achieve any real popularity." Nevertheless, the U.S. government added bufotenine, the hallucinogenic ingredient in toad venom, to the list of illegal drugs.