M-ALPHA, also known as 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-ethyl-''N''-methylbenzylamine or as α-ethyl-''N''-methylpiperonylamine, is a

psychoactive drug A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, mind-altering drug, consciousness-altering drug, psychoactive substance, or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that alters psychological functioning by modulating central nervous system acti ...

of the substituted benzylamine group. It was reported by

Alexander Shulgin Alexander Theodore "Sasha" Shulgin (June 17, 1925 – June 2, 2014) was an American biochemist, broad researcher of synthetic psychoactive compounds, and author of works regarding these, who independently explored the organic chemistry and ph ...

in his book

PIHKAL ''PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story'' is a book by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin published in 1991. The subject of the work is Psychoactive drug, psychoactive phenethylamine Derivative (chemistry), chemical derivatives, notably those that act ...

as a

positional isomer In chemistry, a structural isomer (or constitutional isomer in the IUPAC nomenclature) of a compound is a compound that contains the same number and type of atoms, but with a different connectivity (i.e. arrangement of bonds) between them. The ...

MDMA 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...

. Subsequently, the drug was encountered as a

designer drug A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2010 and was reported to the

EMCDDA The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), known until 2024 as the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, and established in 1993. In June 2022, the ...

new drug monitoring service. It was described by Shulgin as similar in action to its

demethylated Demethylation is the chemical process resulting in the removal of a methyl group (CH3) from a molecule. A common way of demethylation is the replacement of a methyl group by a hydrogen atom, resulting in a net loss of one carbon and two hydrogen at ...

homologue,

ALPHA Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

, but with roughly twice the duration and twice the

potency Potency may refer to: * Potency (pharmacology), a measure of the activity of a drug in a biological system * Virility * Cell potency, a measure of the differentiation potential of stem cells * In homeopathic dilutions, potency is a measure of ho ...

. ALPHA itself was described as active at doses of 10 to 140mg, with a duration of about 3hours, and producing eyes-closed "dreams", some body tingling, and a pleasant positive feeling, but without any appetite suppression. M-ALPHA was encountered as a designer drug by 2010.

References

External links

M-ALPHA - Isomer Design

MDA - PiHKAL - Erowid
Benzodioxoles Benzylamines Designer drugs Drugs with unknown mechanisms of action Methyl compounds Propyl compounds Psychoactive drugs {{Psychoactive-stub

See also

References

External links