More data about the new psychoactive drug 2C-B.

Giroud et al. (1) recently described the discovery of 2C-B (4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, Figure 1 [[A]) as a new psychoactive phenethylamine in Ecstasy tablets sold on the Swiss black market. Here we would like to report the circumstances of the Dutch market that partly confirm the situation in Switzerland. Unfortunately, the marketing of new phenylalkylamine psychotropics is common practice in the Netherlands. The reason is that as long as the name of a drug is not specified in the Dutch Opium Act, the selling and abuse of new phenylalkylamine drugs is difficult to prevent by the Dutch authorities. As this Drug Act only contains a limited number of names of phenalkylamine psychotropics, the marketing possibilities of new drugs are apparently unrestricted. Until recently, the hallucinogenic 2,5-dimethoxyphenalkylamines were not popular in the Netherlands. For example, the amphetamine analogue of 2C-B, 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenisopropylamine (DOB, Figure I [IB]), which appeared on the Dutch market in the beginning of 1994 in limited quantities, was seen only rarely after its first appearance (2). Because of the very potent hallucinogenic effects of DOB (3), the interest in this type of drug was probably limited to a small of group of users. In addition, acute warning campaigns are believed to have prevented widespread DOB abuse. It is important to note that DOB was already specified in the Dutch Opium Act at the time of its introduction. The popularity of hallucinogenic 2,5-dimethoxyphenalkylamines on the Dutch market changed with the introduction of 2C-B in 1995. Because 2C-B was not listed by name in the Dutch Opium Act at that time, nothing prevented its sale and abuse. 2C-B tablets were in fact marketed by a commercial firm and were available in so-called "smart-drug" shops (4,5). Because of these circumstances, the abuse of 2C-B apparently became quite popular in a relatively short period. Only after 2C-B was scheduled on the list of illegal drugs in the summer of 1997 did this situation change. Now, pure 2C-B tablets are very difficult to obtain. In the Netherlands, 2C-B is probably only available as an ingredient in Ecstasy tablets.