Re: MAPS: -BZ- & The hallucinogens of the dark side...

["Bob Greer" <greers_maps@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A "designer" version of the tropine hallucinogens is available as
"benztropine mesylate."

This drug is an FDA-approved drug given to (if you can believe it!)
psychiatric patients. (It reduces the symptoms of the extrapyramidal brain
damage caused by major tranquilizers - the neuroleptics.  It is valuable a
tool for psychiatric institutes that like to overload their patients with
tranquilizers to keep them insensible.)  Benztropine mesylate does not cause
this damage though; drugs such as throrazine and haldol are responsible
instead.

Benztropine mesylate will create the bizarre hallucinations caused by
tropine class of hallucinogens _without_ many of the standard toxic side
effects.   For example, people taking 5 mg. or more will _feel_ as if they
are about to lose control emotionally - without actually doing so in the
non-conscious sense that, say, atropine produces.  Memory of the experience
is (mostly) retained.   There is still  a fuzzing of the vision so some
interocular pressure is probably produced; people prone to glaucoma should
probably avoid it.

It's a very heavy trip in any case, and not one to begin without a secure
setting and a friendly "babysitter."  Outside of those limits (and any
contradictions listed in the Physicians Desk Reference where, I presume,
it's listed) it's a safe ticket to the class of hallucinogen-psychedelics
called "belladonas."

Benztropine is also proof that these hallucinogens don't act solely through
a toxic action (as many researchers including Dr. Hoffmann) assumed when the
class was investiged years ago.

Naturally, actions like driving a car or walking to the store under the
influence of this drug indicate a "crazy" desire to endanger oneself and
others.  If you attempt such things on a tropine drug then you probably need
to go to jail.  So if you're a sociopath, or just very stupid, then this is
one you should avoid.

Keep in mind that people exposed to tropine drugs are prone to heat stroke
if they are in the sun etc.  They must stay cool and drink fluids
occasionally.  (The skin changes color when this happens.  Remember the old
Boy Scout/Red Cross adage: "Face is red, raise the head; face is pale, raise
the tail.")

Also, the set and setting rule applies strongly with this drug: watching a
horror movie (or even the Sci-Fi flick supposedly about BZ) will likely
leaving you sitting alone with the bugs for a while.  Particularly since the
hallucinations are said to be quite stable and not at all effervescent (like
the brief, cartoon-like ones that very occasinally pop-up for a second in
strong acid trips).

-  Bob Greer

PS  BZ reportedly causes, as a side affect, an inability to use your legs.
And it's listed by RBI as a poison.  Since it's absorbed by eating,
breathing and through the skin, and since the semi-conscious state doesn't
stop until all the toxins are removed from you (which you can't do yourself)
this isn't a good thing to mess with.  It's an incapacitant chosen for use
in war;  really, you can do better.




----- Original Message -----
From: Tore M. Schanke <tore.schanke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Map Forum <maps-forum@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 1999 3:02 AM
Subject: Re: MAPS: -BZ- & The hallucinogens of the dark side...


>
>
>"Easson, Jeffery" wrote:
>... i was also wondering about a
>
>> drug known as BZ.  once used by the cia/military this is supposed to
>> be a superhallucinogen.  what is a superhallucinogen (as opposed to a
>> hallucinogen)?  i was also wondering if anybody knows how to make it?
>>  i know BZ's name (it's in acid dreams) but i would really be
>> interested in trying it?
>
>To start with the last question: You would NOT be interested in trying it!
>
>It's easy to make...
>
>BZ, -or more commonly known as QNB (quinuclidinyl benzilate), is a very
strong
>'disabilitating' agent, active from about 0.050 mg. It acts in a way
similar to
>other deliriant anti-cholinergics, -of which the tropane alkaloids
(atropin,
>scopolamine and hyoscyamine), are the 'prototypes'. It is a little more
>specific, as it interacts with only a subset of the muscarinic acetyl
choline
>receptors, while most anti-muscarinic, anti cholinergic drugs are less
>specific, they are somewhat less dangerous... If you want to have a 'taste'
of
>this 'purgatory' try smoking a little Datura or Belladonna, but don't take
them
>orally, unless you want to be in for some heavy 'punishing'. -If taken
orally
>the effects can last for days.

<SNIP>

>Some of these substances are commonly used in medicine, but the use has
>declined as safer drugs have been taken into use.
>It is true that plants like Henbane, Belladonna and Thorn-Apples, were
>important in the religious practices of our ancestors, like in Norse and
>Germano-Celtic religion. Religious and ritual use of related plants are
known
>from all around the globe (Asia, Europe, Africa, America), and pre-dates
>recorded history.
>As there are so many better and safer substances, with more suitable
effects, I
>think any use of the stronger doses of anti-cholinergics, outside of a
>medically monitored context, should be avoided.
>
>Tore M. Schanke - toxicologist
>
>ps
>"super hallucinogen" (i'd rather say "super deliriants") - well, they can
give
>'true' hallucinations, -unlike LSD-like psychedelics, which really don't do
>much to deserve the term 'hallucinogens'.




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