Description
N,N- Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a powerful psychoactive chemical in the tryptamine group. It produces strong psychedelic effects (e.g. visual hallucinations), a complete break from ordinary awareness that many people describe as feeling like entering another place.
DMT is relatively versatile and can be taken in many ways The effects vary significantly depending on the method of intake. When it is smoked, the onset is fast and strong but will not last very long; when snorted, they are more gradual and longer lasting. Because of this, users may vary their method of intake depending on their mood, the setting (where they are and who they’re with) and what effect they are after. When smoked or vapourised the effects begin within seconds and are over in roughly 10 to 20 minutes (far shorter than some other psychedelics like LSD or Psilocybin). A brew combining certain plants has been used for centuries in traditional South American shamanistic rituals (Ayahuasca,Yage,etc.) in a brew with DMT-containing leaves with a vine that makes DMT more active when swallowed (Contains an MAOI and makes it build over 30 to 60 minutes and last around 4-6 hours).
Desirable Effects
- Vivid colours, moving geometric patterns, and a ‘soft edge’ or melting quality to objects, seen with eyes open or closed
- At higher amounts, immersive visions that can feel like a different environment, sometimes with a sense of meeting ‘entities’ or intelligences
- Altered sense of time, which can feel stretched or absent
- Loss of the usual sense of self or body (ego dissolution), which some people find meaningful or spiritual
- Euphoria, wonder, and strong emotional responses
- Vivid dreams in the following nights, reported by some users
Undesirable Effects
- Overwhelming intensity, fear, panic or paranoia, especially if the person does not expect how fast and strong it is
- Feeling disconnected from the self or reality, which can be distressing
- A rapid, abrupt onset and a quick return, which some find disorienting
- Raised heart rate and blood pressure, dilated pupils, sweating, tremor, nausea, and a rise in body temperature
- Loss of coordination and awareness of surroundings during the peak, so a risk of falls and injury
- Difficult or confusing thoughts afterwards, and in some people lingering anxiety or low mood for hours or days
- With ayahuasca-type preparations: vomiting, diarrhoea and a longer, harder-to-end experience
What does it look like?
- Freebase crystals or powder: the most common form. Usually off-white, yellow, orange or pinkish, sometimes waxy or oily rather than clearly crystalline. Colour reflects impurities and does not reliably indicate strength or safety.
- Fumarate salt: a white, water-soluble and more stable form. It is the form used in clinical research. It is much less commonly seen in the street market.
- Plant material and extracts: root bark (for example Mimosa tenuiflora), acacia bark, leaves of Psychotria viridis (chacruna) and Diplopterys cabrerana, and some grasses (Phalaris species) contain DMT. Home extractions are often made from these and can leave solvent residues or other plant alkaloids.
- Changa and other smoking blends: DMT applied to herbal mixtures, sometimes including MAOI-containing plants such as Banisteriopsis caapi, which changes the effect profile (typically a longer, softer experience than smoked DMT alone).
- Vape cartridges and pens: increasingly common.
Method of Use
Smoked: The most common route in freebase form, effects begin within seconds, peak quickly and fade within minutes.
Injected: it can be injected only if it is in the acidic salt (fumarate) form, the other form (‘freebase’) cannot be as it does not mix with water. This is the route used in controlled research with effects peaking at around 2 minutes.
Insufflated: the crystals can be crushed and snorted, similar to other white powders but reports are inconsistent and is described as painful or unreliable. Traditional snuffs (cohoba or yopo) are made from different plants and often contain other tryptamines.
Swallowed: in some cultures, the ‘ayahuasca’ beverage contains some DMT. However, when ingesting DMT, an appropriate enzyme inhibitor must be taken (i.e. MAOIs), otherwise the DMT will be inactive. This is the route with the most serious drug interactions
NB. The fumarate form is water soluble (mixes with water), more stable and less likely to degrade, but is slightly less potent than the ‘freebase’ form. Both forms can look similar in appearance, although the ‘freebase’ form may have a stronger crystal-like appearance.
Pharmacology
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) belongs to a class of chemical compounds called ‘tryptamines’ and acts as an agonist at serotonin receptors, rather than changing how much serotonin the body makes. Its Psychedelic effects are attributed mainly to partial agonism at the 5-HT2A receptor (the traditional psychedelic receptor and the same target as LSD and Psilocybin). DMT also binds to other serotonin receptors and sigma-1 and trace amine receptors with the roles of these still unclear.
DMT is rapidly broken down by monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme found in the gut wall and liver among other places. Swallowed on its own, most of it is destroyed before it reaches the brain. Ayahuasca avoids this by adding Banisteriopsis caapi, which contains harmala alkaloids (harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine) that reversibly inhibit MAO-A. This lets DMT act when swallowed and makes the effects slower, stronger and much longer. The same MAO inhibition is what creates the drug-interaction risks described below. When smoked or injected, DMT bypasses most of this first-pass breakdown, and its action is very short because MAO-A clears it quickly. DMT has low physical toxicity, and there are no well-established deaths from DMT alone. Serious harm is mainly linked to psychological distress, accidents and injuries while impaired, and interactions with other drugs, particularly MAOIs.
Research doses have produced short-lived rises in heart rate and blood pressure and in stress-related hormones (such as cortisol, prolactin and growth hormone).
Unlike LSD and psilocybin, there is little evidence of rapid tolerance with repeated DMT doses in close succession in research settings, though this has been studied in only a small number of people. There is no recognised physical dependence or withdrawal syndrome. Some people use it compulsively or repeatedly, and its very short duration makes repeated use in a session easy.
DMT and the enzyme that can make it (INMT) have been detected in trace amounts in humans and other mammals, so DMT is described as an endogenous compound. Whether the body produces meaningful amounts in the brain, and what, if anything, it does, remains unproven and debated. There is no good evidence that it explains dreaming or near-death experiences.
History
Traditional and ancient use: plants containing DMT and related tryptamines have been used in South America for a very long time. Snuffs made from Anadenanthera seeds (such as cohoba and yopo) are documented archaeologically from thousands of years ago, and chemical analysis of a roughly 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from Bolivia found DMT-related compounds alongside harmala alkaloids. Ayahuasca-type brews are used by Indigenous Amazonian peoples in healing and ritual contexts.
The european friar Ramón Pané described the Taíno people’s use of cohoba snuff on Hispaniola in the 1490s. Cohoba is made from Anadenanthera seeds and mainly contains bufotenin, with DMT and other tryptamines present in some preparations.
The first synthesis of DMT synthetically occurred in 1931 when it was synthesised by the scientist Richard Manske and then in 1946 brazilian chemist Oswaldo Gonçalves de Lima isolated DMT from the root bark of Mimosa tenuiflora, then called ‘nigerina’, identifying it as a natural product. In 1956 the Hungarian psychiatrist István Szára reported DMT’s psychedelic effects after injecting it into himself, establishing it as a psychoactive compound in humans and by the 60’s DMT had become part of the wider psychedelic counter culture.
In the 90’s Rick Strassman performed research at the University of New Mexico and gave intravenous DMT to volunteers, producing most of the modern controlled data on its effects. His 2001 book popularised the ‘spirit molecule’ nickname. Ayahuasca has since become better known worldwide through retreats and ceremonies, and legal disputes over religious use reached courts in several countries. Clinical research into DMT (including DMT fumarate for depression) has started, and interest in psychedelic therapies has grown coupled with a rise in street availability through vape cartridges and online sales of extraction materials.
Law
Possible offences
- Possession
- Maximum sentence – 7 years imprisonment, a fine, or both
- Possession With Intent To Supply
- Maximum sentence – life imprisonment, a fine, or both
- Supply (including being concerned in supply, conspiracy to supply, aggravated supply and offer to supply)
- Maximum sentence – life imprisonment, a fine, or both
- Production
- Maximum sentence – life imprisonment, a fine, or both
In practice maximum sentences are rarely used, for more detailed and accurate information go to our sentencing page.
