Dexoxadrol

 Age: 27

Weight: 130 lbs

Dosage: 290 mg oral in solution

Setting: My house

 

To my great sadness I found this drug to be extremely unremarkable. I had been so excited to try it. I elaborate on that excitement in the intro, which incidentally ends up being about as long as the actual report, which begins at the timestamp after the big block of text.

Dexoxadrol had me fascinated from the moment I had first learned of its existence. Those who are well familiar with their dissociatives know that the vast majority belong one structural class of molecule, called the arylcyclohexylamines, such as ketamine or PCP. The diarylethylamines, such as diphenidine and ephenidine, constitute another major class of molecule that reliably produces active dissociatives. In time however, I would come to learn about another class of molecule that consistently had dissociative activity, ones that had actually been tested in people! Not only had they been tested in people, but effects reminiscent of my familiar hallucinatory experiences had been recorded. So where were these compounds in the wider landscape of psychoactive drugs?

Dexoxadrol is based on a structure called Dioxolane. It is one of several dissociative drugs derived from the dioxolane scaffold. Another example of a drug in this class is Etoxadrol. Both of these drugs were tested on humans in the 60’s and 70’s, in the context of developing a non-opioid anesthetic. Trials were ultimately abandoned due to reported hallucinatory effects, particularly the development of “nightmares”, though it is not clear if these are disturbances in natural dreaming, or intense dysphoric hallucinatory states. (It should be noted that this came shortly after PCP had fallen out of favor in the medical community, similarly as an anesthetic that had alarming hallucinogenic effects.)

I have previously written about the dioxolanes at length- both their history and their structure-activity relations.  I even made one of my handy flowcharts for potentially designing new compounds in this class.

After these trials were abandoned, dexoxadrol and the dissociative dioxolanes were mostly forgotten and wallowed in obscurity. One could find out about them by digging deep enough on the internet, and there had been a number of studies on analogous compounds in recent years. It never saw medical usage and thus never broke out into the public sphere of recreational drug use like PCP. For decades it simply didn’t exist beyond research institutions until- I was able to obtain a trial batch that had been produced to assess possible interest. The trials had run their course and the synthetic difficulty combined with the poor feedback from trial groups meant that dexoxadrol likely would never see wide availability. I had obtained some of the last scraps of that synthesis well after the matter had already been settled.

So there I had it before me, an extremely fluffy white powder with a static charge. The dioxolanes could present an entirely new frontier in the world of dissociatives, and I had the lead compound of the class in my hands, one of the first people to do so since its original trials nearly half a century prior. I was giddy with excitement!

Unfortunately, I found the drug to be quite lacking. It was certainly an active dissociative, though not a particularly interesting one. It was quite impotent and short acting, suggesting a low affinity for the target NMDA receptor. The report is short, there simply was not much to say in detail.

 

T0:00- Dose taken. The powder is fluffy and statically charged, sticking to the bag and whatever tools I use to manipulate it. This is frustrating to work with and I feel like every time I touch it I am losing some to the environment. I initially try to work it into a capsule but this quickly proves to be untenable. I eventually just aim for 300 mg and get roughly that, dump all of my tools and weigh paper into a cup of water and dissolve it all into solution. I chug it down, it is cold and bitter and makes me shudder. I wash all the materials and the container several times and drink it down to ensure I get every last bit.

 

T0:15- Onset, feeling a bit lightheaded.

 

T0:40- feeling a little more dissociated, but overall the effects have been understated, bordering on placebo.

 

T1:00- Heavy slow dissociation building. There is undeniably something here now.

 

T1:25- It hits heavier and heavier now. This is a tired, sedating dissociation. My breath is shallow, like some great mass is sitting on me. I am pinned to the ground, with no energy or motivation to move. Even lifting my arms begins to feel exhausting and taxing. There aren’t many visuals to note, both with my eyes open or closed. Perhaps there are some pulses running up and down the walls, slow motion shadows of ripples, forming like slow bubbles. I feel like I am melting and being fused together, my joints welded shut in great pools of cold noise. My head is empty and blank, all I can do is really sit there and think “Huh, I am dissociated”. I am numb and dizzy, and ultimately very still. There is no motion to this, no sense of rush or exposure or entrance; it is simple and matter of fact. Before this I was sober. Now I am not. There is not much to it and the transition from one state to the other was nothing but a subtle shift I hardly noticed. All I know is I feel quite different.

I am playing Chivalry: Medieval warfare and watching the Simpsons. Even moving my fingers to play the game feels like too much exertion for me, so I turn it off and sit on the couch. There are no alterations in my perception of the TV show, everything still makes sense and all the jokes still land.

 

T1:30- There are little tactile sensations now, dull and resigned, like some great invisible fingers made from TV static are trying to tickle me through a thick plastic tarp. My skin is otherwise all numb, a still motionless numbness like stale heavy air in a room without windows. I feel like I am sticky, perhaps just from my reluctance to move. I have been embedded in a drizzle of numbing syrup, my fingers feel numb and gooey, penetrated by my cold and still bones. I am slightly nauseous. My consciousness is securely anchored into my body; where the sensation fades, it can reliably fill in the holes. No hole will be coming out of this, my body will not be getting away from me that easily. I feel a little nauseous.

 

T2:00- I lie down and try to listen to music in the dark. My body annoyingly remains completely anchored to my mind. Closed eyed visuals do not manifest much, just the same ripples like sand dunes, steady and open and wide, moving in slow, slow pulses. They are monochrome. There is not much to say about this.

 

T2:15- It feels like the peak of the experience is already fading. I base this largely on the sense of sedation drawing away and energy returning to my limbs. I can get up and move okay, there is not much loss of coordination and proprioception. I am slow and steady, my thoughts are perfectly lucid.

 

T3:30- Back to baseline. That was uneventful.

 

Conclusion:

Dexoxadrol is definitely an active dissociative- the skewed headspace, the numbness and disconnection, all of the elements were there, albeit in conservative portions. It is a heavily sedating dissociation, reminiscent of the slow tiredness of first waking up from a long sleep. It is not particularly useful for anything other than being still. Many dissociatives are similar, but have some sort of engaging sensory space that renders the body irrelevant. This was not the case for dexoxadrol, where the most I was able to experience was dull ripples and indistinct monochrome patterns. The potency was low and the duration was short, even from an oral dose. I was not able to attempt any other routes of administration. I am certain that more interesting effects may be found at higher doses. Unfortunately, however, this trial was the last of my available material, and may perhaps be some of the last of this molecule to exist on earth beyond the walls of accredited chemistry and pharmacology labs. I am doubtful that humble little Dexoxadrol is going to see much demand or appeal.

I would still be curious to try other related compounds such as etoxadrol- after all, dexoxadrol is just one member of its family. Dexoxadrol’s unremarkable effects could very well be an aberration in the broader scheme of things- or conversely it could be standard for the class. There is only one way to find out, and I am eager to learn!  

Lastly, I did not notice any nightmares in the following 24 hour period, waking or otherwise.