DMT (dimethyltryptamine)

What is DMT

DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) is a strong psychedelic drug, which means it can affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions. Psychedelics can cause a person to hallucinate, seeing or hearing things that do not exist or are distorted.

DMT is structurally similar to psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and is known to produce short acting and intense visual hallucinations.

What does DMT look like?

DMT is found in a variety of plants and animals, and is the psychoactive ingredient in the drug ayahuasca. In ayahuasca, a plant containing DMT is boiled together with a plant containing a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) such as harmaline, and the mixture is drunk.

When produced synthetically DMT is a white crystalline powder.

How is DMT used?

DMT can be:

• vaporised or smoked in a pipe
• drunk as part of an ayahuasca brew
• snorted
• injected.

Effects of DMT

Use of any drug can have risks. It’s important to be careful when taking any type of drug.

Psychedelics affect everyone differently, based on:

• size, weight and health
• whether the person is used to taking it
• whether other drugs are taken around the same time
• the amount taken
• the strength of the drug (varies from batch to batch)
• environment (where the drug is taken).

DMT has effects commencing almost straight away and finishing after around 30 minutes. Effects may include:

• a ‘rush’
• feeling happy and excited
• changes in mood
• increased sensitivity to bodily sensations (body aches, tingles, feelings of pain and pleasure, warmth and fatigue)
• increased heart rate and blood pressure
• small pupils
• anxiety and confusion
• intense visual hallucinations
• dissociation.