On Sticking 2C-T-2 Up My Ass (29/30)

Fifteen years ago I got my hands on two dozen different psychedelics in an attempt to try them all. One of them was 2C-T-2 — a psychedelic phenethylamine discovered by Sasha Shulgin, a part of his “magic half-dozen” — a select group of six psychedelics he considered especially interesting among the hundreds he created.

2C-T-2 is a wonderful chemical that generates a sense of connection to nature and its mystery. Have you ever felt that sense of wonder and awe at how magical it is that stardust from the early universe became planet Earth and all its diverse carbon-based life forms? 2C-T-2 would reliably create this feeling. It’s the feeling a hunter-gatherer might get, sitting around a fire and staring into the darkness of the forest. It’s perhaps the same sense of connection hinted at in the 2009 movie Avatar.

If 2C-B’s ground of experience is warm and entactogenic, and 2C-E’s is deep and analytic, then 2C-T-2’s is mysticism on tap.

2C-T-2 may sound like a lovely drug, but its big problem is horrendous nausea and gut-wrenching body load. It’s the absolute worst of all psychedelics I tried. I had four or five 2C-T-2 trips and I vomited every time during the come-up. It’s the kind of nausea where vomiting doesn’t help — you are dry-heaving for minutes praying for the come up to be over faster. After the drug fully kicks in, it does get better, but you’re still left with heaviness in your stomach and bad muscle tension throughout your entire body.

I only have a vague hypothesis as for why this is the case. Psychedelics are 5-HT2A serotonin receptor agonists — this is the main receptor responsible for their effects, the fun kind of receptor. But there are other receptors in the brain, such as 5HT2B and 5HT2C — a drug binding to them generally causes nausea and bodyload. I can only assume that God put them in the brain so we enjoy psychedelics less.

There are also serotonin receptors in the gut, and so an idea occurred to me: what if I tried to avoid hitting these by putting the drug in a different hole in my body? Would this work? Who knows: maybe the nausea is entirely brain-generated, and the drug would still reach receptors in the stomach from the blood stream. But perhaps it’d still hit them less overall due to the drug taking a bit of detour. Only an experiment could tell.

As an analytical young man confident in his heterosexuality and wanting to explore his body, I had no problem with the idea of sticking a psychedelic drug up my ass. Homophobia is gay, anyway. Homophobic people should work on their homophobia, so they can enjoy the upsides of putting their drugs in their ass.

And there are upsides, at least for phenethylamines such as 2C-T-2. Number one: higher bioavailability. This means that you can reduce your dose by a third or half while still getting the same effects. Homophobia literally costs people money.

Number two: faster absorption. If my plan wouldn’t work, at least the come up would be over twice as fast.

And so I bought some lube and put my dose of 2C-T-2, dissolved in 1 ml of water, into a small syringe. Then, with the excitement of a kid watching a rocket launch, I lubed my asshole, lay on my side, inserted the syringe into my rectum, and squirted it in. The resulting sensation was uncomfortable — an immediate urge to defecate that didn’t really go away for most of the trip.

The faster absorption did make the come-up twice as short, twice as fast, and twice as intense. The nausea and body load weren’t any better — in fact, they were worse because the whole experience was compressed. I had the absolute worst dry-heaving of any psychedelic experience, coupled with the most intense pareidolia of my life — looking out the window of my room, the trees were covered in human faces. They were schematic faces, but my brain was somehow convinced they were all my faces. Think of looking at a tree and seeing your reflection in every branch.

It was fun and scary at the same time.

Psychedelic trips are hard to remember, especially fifteen years later. I wish I could tell you more than this memory, but alas I don’t really have other memories formed. I remember basking in 2C-T-2’s mysticism with closed eyes, half-wishing for the trip to be over. It’s a special drug with special side effects.

Is there a lesson to learn? I’ll start from afar. The idea of anal sex is more fun than anal sex itself. It looks better than it feels. God made this hole for something else. I’m all for repurposing it if that’s your thing, but personally, I’ve never done drug rectally again.