alpha-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone (Alpha-PVP for the rest of us) is a stimulant and also one of the first 2nd generation bath salts. Take a minute to understand what that signifies. We’re creating new psychedelic substances (NPS) so fast that we’re getting refinements on substances that haven’t been popular for 5 years. The original bath salt MDPV developed a reputation for turning people into those face-eating zombies from 28 Days Later, so people started looking for something that had all the energy, but a little less cannibalism. They found Alpha-PVP. Unfortunately for at least a couple of people so far, it killed them. If this drug sounds familiar at all, it’s because the kid who died at Ultra last year took it. The drug can be smoked, snorted, left under your tongue to absorb, vaporized, added to joints & injected. There are terrifying side-effects including seizures, paranoia, PCP-style hulk outs & death by heart attack. In animal tests, the drug created similar activity to straight amphetamines when it came to how stimulated the rats were. But the weird, messed up part is that, at high doses, the rats displayed erratic, hyperactive & bizarre behavior. Which lines up with the stories we’ve seen about violent behavior & crazy cardiovascular distress. Additionally, reports of Gravel, or Alpha-PVP+ stuff have come in. This is a serious escalation that we all need to be aware of. Sometimes Alpha-PVP is mixed with methamphetamines or Klonopin. The idea that you’d be taking a drug that produces, and I quote “impressive degrees of paranoia” mixed with meth? No wonder these people are going on rampages & breaking crap with drug strength. Because this entire spectrum of aPVP containing options exist as “not for human consumption” bath salts, you can get it anywhere in the USA, UK & Australia. Another example of the lengths people will go to get high/stay productive in an ever changing world. If you look at the trip reports on Erowid (linked above), you’ll see a consistent feature, common to most American stimulant usage. It’s done for the sake of productivity, not to get “fucked up.” People are working harder & longer, doing less fulfilling stuff, so they’re frequently turning to prescription or over the counter stims. If I can’t get adderall & I feel like I need something, and my friend tells me about this shit that works great and I can buy at a gas station? I’m in. And that’s how we got here. Not only is the drug war making more dangerous drugs propagate because people can’t buy the things they actually want, it’s creating these drugs faster than ever before. I need to stress one last point that was gotten to me by the NY DanceSafe chapter leader. Currently, we can’t test for this stuff. Even though the test kits that you can get from DanceSafe & other places do test for cathinones (the family/class of drugs “bath salts” is in), Alpha-PVP doesn’t react to the test. This is super important information to get out to your people, especially because of the wacky side-effects aPVP has. To learn more, join me, Ravelrie, NY DanceSafe & Stay Safe Seattle at 4:30 EST, 1:30 PST on Twitter using #alphapvp!