Up-to-Date Information on Foxy Methoxy

Foxy Methoxy is a common slang term for the chemical 5-methoxy-N, N-diisopropyltryptamine (5-MeO-DiPT), an illegal hallucinogenic drug that belongs to a group of substances called tryptamines. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s Office of Diversion Control, it currently outranks LSD and psilocybin as the most widely available tryptamine in America. This is true, in part, because illicit drug manufacturers often use Foxy Methoxy as a convenient substitute for the club drug Ecstasy (known chemically as MDMA). Foxy Methoxy users run the risk of developing a number of unpleasant side effects, getting involved in accidents, or dying from the effects of a drug overdose.

Background Information

Foxy Methoxy is also sometimes known simply as Foxy. Common use of the drug dates back to the late 1990s. Unlike some hallucinogenic drugs of abuse, which were originally created or used within a medical context, Foxy Methoxy has no history of medical usage and exists solely as a recreational drug. As indicated previously, illicit manufacturers first distributed the drug as a legal alternative to Ecstasy, which was banned from legal use in the 1980s. However, federal laws passed in 2004 also banned the possession, sale, and use of Foxy Methoxy.

Like LSD, mescaline, and several other hallucinogens, Foxy Methoxy apparently achieves most of its mind-altering effects in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) by artificially activating nerve cell regions normally activated by a natural chemical called serotonin. In addition, it may also directly boost serotonin production, as well as production of other key brain chemicals such as dopamine and norepinephrine.

Most people receive Foxy Methoxy in the form of a capsule or tablet, although the drug is also available as a liquid or loose powder. The minimal effective dose of the drug is roughly 4 milligrams, the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control reports, with most active doses ranging in size from 6 to 20 mg. The first effects of Foxy Methoxy appear after roughly 20 minutes to half an hour; the most intense effects appear in roughly an hour and a half, and last somewhere within a range of three to six hours.

Drug Effects

Basic “desired” effects of Foxy Methoxy use include auditory (sound-related) and visual hallucinations, feelings of euphoria and connectedness with others, heightened energy levels, a reduction in social or personal inhibitions, and talkativeness. Common undesirable effects of the drug include diarrhea, irritability, insomnia, restlessness, abnormal muscle tension, stomach distress, nausea, vomiting, involuntary clenching of the jaw, and temporary erectile dysfunction. Along with unpleasant auditory and/or visual hallucinations, certain other effects of Foxy Methoxy may be perceived as desirable or undesirable, depending on the individual. They include an out-of-body sensation known formally as dissociation, rapidly shifting thought patterns, and relatively minor changes in a person’s visual field or normal auditory range.

People who take higher-than-average doses of Foxy Methoxy expose themselves to risks for the onset of an overdose. Potential symptoms of a Foxy Methoxy overdose include heightened mental agitation, nausea, vomiting, extremely unpleasant hallucinations, dangerously low blood pressure (hypotension), and an abnormally accelerated heartbeat (tachycardia). In a few isolated (but verified) cases, people who overdosed on the drug developed rhabdomyolysis, a form of abnormal muscle tissue breakdown that can trigger a chain reaction in the body leading to kidney failure. Rhabdomyolysis-related kidney failure sometimes results in death. Doctors can potentially reverse a Foxy Methoxy overdose with doses of lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medication available commercially in the US as Ativan.

Current Statistics and Considerations

In 2012, the DEA’s National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) ranked Foxy Methoxy as one of the 25 substances most commonly encountered by state and local drug authorities, and one of the 10 substances most commonly encountered by DEA agents. These two rankings constitute an unprecedented rise in Foxy Methoxy use and, between 2009 and 2011, the number of reported cases involving the drug increased by fully 5600 percent. According to the NFLIS, no one knows why this steep increase in usage occurred.

Illicit or illegal drugs used along with Foxy Methoxy-or included in compounds that also contain Foxy Methoxy-include Ecstasy, the stimulant hallucinogen alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT), the euphoria-inducing stimulant benzylpiperazine (BZP), the Ecstasy substitute trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP), and substances called synthetic cathinones, which are sometimes included in formulas of the designer drugs known as “bath salts.” People who combine Foxy Methoxy with AMT may have unusually high risks for the onset of a harmful or fatal overdose.