The NBOMe hallucinogenic drug series Patterns of use, characteristics of users and self-reported effects in a large international sample.
The NBOMe compounds are a novel series of hallucinogenic drugs that are potent agonists of the 5-HT2A receptor, have a short history of human consumption and are available to buy online, in most countries. In this study, we sought to investigate the patterns of use, characteristics of users and self-reported effects. A cross-sectional anonymous online survey exploring the patterns of drug use was conducted in 2012 (n 22,289), including questions about the use of 25B-NBOMe, 25C-NBOMe, and 25I-NBOMe and comparison drugs. We found that 2.6% of respondents (n 582) reported having ever tried one of the three NBOMe drugs and that at 2.0%, 25I-NBOMe was the most popular (n 442). Almost all (93.5%) respondents whose last new drug tried was a NBOMe drug, tried it in 2012, and 81.2% of this group administered the drug orally or sublinguallybuccally. Subjective effects were similar to comparison serotonergic hallucinogens, though higher negative effects while high and greater value for money were reported. The most common (41.7%) drug source was via a website. The NBOMe drugs have emerged recently, are frequently bought using the internet and have similar effects to other hallucinogenic drugs however, they may pose larger risks, due to the limited knowledge about them, their relatively low price and availability via the internet.