This drug's street name is STP. During the hippie drug culture of the VIETNAM war period, its name referred to "serenity, tranquility, and peace." This was also a taunt and a spoof, since the initials were the same as a widely available oil additive that made an automobile engine run smoothly. The drug DOM is a member of a family of HALLUCINOGENIC substances based on molecular additions to phenethylamine. This is a group of compounds that have structural similarities to the catecholamine-type NEUROTRANSMITTERS, such as NOREPINEPHRINE, epinephrine, and DOPAMINE. While our bodies make these catecholamines from dietary amino acids, they do not make the chemical substitutions that produce a PSYCHEDELIC compound. MESCALINE is the best and longest known of this family of HALLUCINOGENS.

DOM is a synthesized compound that produces effects similar to mescaline and LYSERGIC ACID DI-ETHYLAMIDE (LSD), but the effects of DOM can last for fourteen to twenty hours, much longer than those of LSD. In addition, the effects of DOM have a very slow onset. Some of the initial street users of DOM had previous experience with LSD, a drug with a much more rapid onset. When the typical LSD-type effects were not found soon after taking DOM, some users took more drug, which led to a very intense and long-lasting psychedelic experience. Ironically, DOM was originally manufactured in the hope of producing a shorter, less-intense trip than LSD, which, it was thought, might be more useful and manageable in producing a period of insight and self-reflection in psychotherapy. This hope was never achieved.

Figure1 DOM

See Also

Designer Drugs; Dimethyltryptamine)

Bibliography

SHULGIN, A., & SHULGIN, A. (1991). PIHKAL: A chemical love story. Berkeley, CA: Transform Press.