Colour has decayed and now it's gone

In a previous post, I described the characteristics and effects of one of my favourites: "Colour" or 4-Ho-Met.

Early this year I had sourced an amount of this compound from a manufacturer in the P.R.C -where most chems actually come from, if you have ever wondered that- and stored most of it in an airtight, steel container away from heat, humidity and every other source of harm.

After a few months I opened the steel can and to my surprise all the 4-Ho-Met had degraded into a tarry, disgusting mess - it looked like hashish resin: a lustrous and almost wet, brittle slab.

In storage the whole batch of 4-Ho-Met had decayed. My heart sank when I realised that "the Colour" had gone bad so dramatically. Shit.

The rest of the compounds in said steel can looked fresh and properly stored. What could have happened to 4-Ho-Met? Could it be that it was impure, or was not properly purified? Could it be that it spontaneously degrades? Maybe something else?

I started researching around the 'net and could not find an answer, until I got to a Russian forum: in it I read about the fragility of the 4-substituted tryptamine molecules - they seem to degrade without any apparent reason; even for those who keep them stowed away safely in a refrigerated container. Those buggers are unstable by nature.

It seems I am not the first to report on the degradation of 4-Ho-Met. The "tar" is supposed to be some deranged byproduct of 4-Ho-Met that underwent major dimerisation, polymerisation, something-else.

"The tar" is presumably psychoactive, but I did not have the courage to try its effects. As I do not have a Mass Spectrometer with me, I refuse to be a test subject for something unknown that could be really bad. Ironic statement for a psychedelic dad, but very sensible.

I did test the solubility of "the tar" - it dissolves in water and in ethanol (vodka) and the liquid has a very dark brown colour, almost purple. Very unappealing and dirty-looking.

"The tar" in a bowl with water

Off the drain it went.

The colours in the wall

This is a short story of a trip with a combo of 4-Aco-DMT + 4-Ho-MET.

These two chems combine and reinforce each other gracefully and it's one of the most artistic trips you can get without going over the edge of reason. 

Both drugs affect the processing of vision in the brain: 4-Ho-MET brings out the glow and saturation of colours and creates spotlights and colourful tracers in your surroundings; while 4-Aco-DMT -as weird and unpredictable as it can be- synergises with the centers of vision and plays illusions of shapes, colours and movement.

I've found the ratio to be important - when the weight of 4-Aco-DMT is about half that of 4-Ho-MET the resulting trip will affect the perception of light and colour. As the amount of 4-Aco-DMT increases, the weirdness of the trip increases as well, and strange and unusual visions will happen. 

I ate a capsule of 12 mgs of 4-Ho-MET with 8 mgs of 4-Aco-MET at noon on a fine Sunday. The sun was shining and the weather was inviting for a lazy laydown in a nearby pool, so I grabbed my hat and swim gear and went for a dive.

Not more than an hour after ingestion I had to excuse myself from my friends and returned to my apartment. I was dehydrated and felt nausea building up, a typical sign of a trip building up and about to begin. Got home just as the colours were growing in intensity and drank a cold ice tea, while sitting down for in a comfortable sofa to wait for the discomfort to ease.

As I laid there with my eyes closed I could see the visions that 4-Aco-DMT produces in me: slowly rotating shapes, like those in computer screen savers. Hexagonal solids. Cubes. Pyramids. All this while some random TV channel played nursery rhymes.

The shapes were rotating in sync with the tempo of the nursery rhymes. Charming, but eerie and uncanny. There was something sinister about the whole scene and I worried the trip might take a turn for the worse. I quickly turned the TV off and closed my eyes for a few minutes.

At some point I half-opened my eyelids to check on the clock in the wall to my left, and I was regaled with an amazing sight: the white wall started changing colour, as if a brush was slowly painting it with a shade of blue that reminded me of Delft porcelain.

Delft china.

In wide stokes of colour, the wall was being converted into a canvas. Into a piece of psychedelic art.

Soon the wall started changing hue and went from blue to green, then tan and ochre. And then back to blue.

Every time, the unseen brush would paint methodically on top of the previous colour. Sometimes with geometric patterns. Sometimes with solid colours. Sometimes the brush would paint in water colours that blended beautifully with the hue already in the wall.

This wondrous cycle of painting went on for another ten or fifteen minutes. I found I could somehow influence the trip by thinking of a colour I would like to see. I succeeded most of the time - but I could not make the wall black, red, orange or any of the bright neons.

After this, I hurriedly realised I had been away from my friends for about an hour, and thought I was feeling well enough to go back to the pool. By this time I was still tripping, but without nausea. And started to truly enjoy the tryptamine-enhanced radiance of a beautiful sunny day. I was feeling great, in a very elated and happy mood.

Everything was magical and perfect that day, and I will remember this trip as one of the most beautiful and gentle experiences I have had.

4-Ho-MET

4-Ho-MET, Metocin, Methylcybin; C13H18N2O

This lesser known tryptamine is one of the less stressful and more picturesque trips that I have experienced. And it combines very well with a wide range of substances -including some phenethylamines.

Although the literature says its effects are similar to psilocin or psilocibin, this is not how I it: 4-Ho-MET is its own persona. Again, this is solely my opinion. But it does form part of the magic mushroom experience, and it is speculated that 4-Ho-MET is metabolised in vivo into psilocin.

The 4-Ho-MET that I tracked down is a dark tan powder, like powdered breakfast cocoa, with a faint chemical smell. Over time it will darken to a mahogany shade, but its effects are not diminished.

Dose ranges, rectal, milligrams (male, 90 Kg)

• Light: 4 to 10
• Mid-range: 11 to 20
• Strong: over 21

4-Ho-MET can be taken orally, insufflated and rectally - I have tried all routes and decided that rectal is the way to go. The effects of 4-Ho-MET start coming up around 45 minutes after administration and include the usual symptoms of a tryptamine: light-headed, giggly, euphoria, mood lift, pupils dilated, extremely sensitive to temperature.

And then, it just happens. The visual component of 4-Ho-MET is like nothing I have experienced elsewhere:  my vision suddenly goes through a high-contrast filter, like the ones of those photography applications.

4-Ho-Met, not your breakfast chocolate

Colours look luscious and radiant. A rubber ducky looks like it is radiating energy and has adopted a shine. Heck, the world looks shiny. Strong colours look best: hot pinks, yellows, greens, neons.

But where 4-Ho-MET excels is at night time. The absence of strong ambient light exposes one of the most intriguing visual effects: I see spots of light around me, as if I am under a disco-ball. This is something unique and exhilarating, and adds to the social experience.

On larger doses, nausea comes in waves. As with other RCs, it works best if you don't eat for a few hours beforehand. Appetite is gone, although alcohol can be consumed nicely.

It goes very well with 4-Aco-DMT, methylone, butylone, MDxx and - I suspect - with psilocin and psilocibin. It does not work well with 2C-E - hard body load, strong paranoia, bad mood; or with AMT - hard body load, mental exhaustion, not worth the trouble with such a remarkable compound. Probably mixing other 2C-xx compounds or NBOM's will have bad or catastrophic results.