Yee-fucking-haw!
Today I had the shitgiggles-deskdance honor of having a piece of writing posted on the Great Dennis Cooper's blog. Dennis is hugely generous with that coveted space he captains, and he frequently allows his readers to 'curate'/write blog posts on specific topics- pieces that Dennis calls 'Days'. For example, Australian Music Day, Werner Herzog Day, and Derek Jarman Day have been some recent [and super] reader contributions.
The idea of crafting a Day for Research Chemicals arose when I happened to mention, on Dennis' blog, that I took some 2ci at Matthew Barney's recent Drawing Restraint retrospective at SFMOMA [which, by the way, is where I first saw Barney's Hypertrophy, which, by the way, effectively shattered my brainscape with its genius sloganeering and absurdly sexual fascination with Harry Houdini- given, of course, the particular character of my brainscape at the moment I happened to walk near the wall where said piece was hanging].
So yeah: Dennis returned that he'd never heard of 2ci and asked for more information. Aside, perhaps, from 5-meo-dmt and 2ct7, 2ci struck-and-strikes me as the most famous Research Chemical- at the very least, it's in the top 5. I thought hmm: if you don't know 2ci, I guess you probably don't know Research Chemicals? As any reader of his non- and fiction knows, Dennis Cooper is no stranger to obscure drugs or internet sensations, so I was surprised that the grand tale of Research Chemicals hadn't yet made its way to him. While the Research Chemical phenomenon has never been one of 'my stories', I was certainly there when everything happened; I feel like I remember the events with reasonable clarity; and, on several in-person occasions, I've done my best to explain the whole deal to flabbergasted strangers. Mostly while hosteling.
As I went about writing the Day, the appellation 'Research Chemical' grew rapidly comic, because I had a pisspants-difficult time conducting any real 'research'. There's Erowid.org [one of the Great websites, period, on any topic], Mdma.net, Bluelight.ru, Good Old Google, and, kinda, not much else. Naturally, 'trip reports'- accounts of what it's like to be on these drugs- abound. But I was trying to tell the story of an industry boom, the rapid expansion and subsequent contraction of a particular scene. About each individual substance involved, an entire book could be written to detail effects, dosages, common uses, locales of popularity, and so on.
To make a long story this: I did my best to read everything I could, but I largely wrote the Day from memory, and from some notes I took in the early 00s while the whole thing was on.
Thus this post. If I made errors, neglected interesting or important tidbits, or really whatever, here's a place to enlighten me and others. It's also a place for general discussion, q+a, speculations, attractive myths, really whatever; about the Research Chem boom, the drugs involved, related substances, Etc Etc Etc Nothing's Off Limits. So please: fire away. Like I said, 'trip reports' were basically outside the scope of the particular article I wrote, but if you'd like to leave a brief note or extended treatise regarding your personal experience[s] with these [or related] chemicals, I'd be honored to read whatever you have to say, not to mention very excited to engage with you.
Here's Fucking Poets: A Day for Research Chemicals, archived here at pleasureiseasy.info for ease of reading.
Here's the Day at Dennis Cooper's. It's the same text. If you're reading the piece over at Dennis Cooper's, to continue the article after the first section, click the text in the 'Previous Posts' sidebar- 'So, somebody somewhere set up some labs?', then 'Rolling Stone published an article', and so on. [Dennis' readers obviously know how to navigate his blog already, but not everyone who surfs here reads Dennis' blog. I know, I know- too bad for them.]
If you're so inclined, you can also read some initial comments on Research Chem Day from Dennis Cooper's readers by navigating to the Previous Post beginning 'p.s. Jesus fucking christ, there's more than 140'. Needless to say!, however!, there's no prerequisite to read that before posting anything here.
Ok. Floor's open; your blank box awaits.
link is http://pleasureiseasy.info/2006/09/since_you_asked.html
4 have made it up below
I'm not sure I agree with you about "love" (or romantic infatuation) endangering one in any way like hallucingenic chemicals do -- or may -- even if as a rhetorical device it's certainly often true to allege that one's inner demons will be exposed.
some of us work hard to keep these inner demons from coming out. (and heroin for instance may help sometimes in certain cases.)
sigmar polke has a painting entitled (something like): "Demons command paint upper left hand corner BLACK"
and he obeyed.