NBOMe isn't new to Australia, but it is now reaching a previously unseen level of notoriety. This process of public familiarisation seems to have come to a head in January this year, when three people died and 20 were hospitalised after taking what was initially described as "a bad batch of MDMA."But as VICE revealed Monday, Victoria Police analysed the suspect drugs a week later, concluding they contained "a cocktail of illicit substances, including 4-Fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) and 25C-NBOMe."
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Retrospectively, it now seems likely the same batch was responsible for a similar spate of Gold Coast hospitalisations in October 2016. Additionally, NBOMe was blamed for the death of Tasmanian man Rye Hunt back in June after he took what he thought to be MDMA in Brazil.Now newspaper reports are losing the quote marks around NBOMe. In the space of a year, Australia has learned of the existence of a relatively new and untested research chemical that only hit illicit markets around 2010. And by untested, we mean that very few animal studies have been produced, its overdose limits are largely speculative, and it comes entirely without any large-scale human studies. Concerningly, a large-scale human study is now underway in the general population.N-B-OMe stands for N-benzl Methoxy and belongs to class of drugs known as phenethylamines. Other drugs in this group include MDMA, methamphetamine (known colloquially as ice), cathinone, and 2-CB. These are a class of powerful stimulants, which structurally speaking have nothing to do with LSD. It's important to note that while NBOMe often gets described as "synthetic acid," the two drugs belong to different families, although they do target the same parts of the brain.NBOMe is a powerful agonist, meaning it binds to the brain's serotonin receptors and manipulates the way they function. Specifically the drug binds to the 5-HT2A receptor, which is also the same target for LSD and a range of antipsychotic drugs. As an interesting side note, autopsies on the brains of suicide victims have found more 5-HT2A receptors than in normal brains, although the correlation betweet receptor numbers and depression is poorly understood.
So what is it?
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Where did it come from?
How does it kill people?
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In this way NBOMe is different to most other hallucinogens. There has never been a recorded overdose with LSD, mushrooms, or mescaline. But NBOMe's blood clotting effect, overall toxicity, and extreme potency make it unique. This is a point made clear by David, who relates the story of a 20-something year-old patient he saw in 2014."This young man was not unfamiliar with drug consumption and wisely decided to take one quarter of one pill. Not long after he decided to admit himself and came into our hospital with a deranged heart-beat, from just a quarter. If he'd taken the whole thing he'd probably have died."