Posted inStimulants

5-MAPB

XTC != APB, 5-MAPB

5-MAPB Research Chemical is a so-called empathogen, a stimulating drug that could, besides causing anxiety, also make you feel more comfortable, or even closer with people around. At least before the hangover sets in.

You feel as if slightly drunken and restless and dizzy, yet surprisingly talkative, while everyone who is not you finds you acting almost a tad too stupid/careless/annoying today. They surely thought about it but won’t hit you on the forehead because a) it’s your birthday, and, b) because it is sad enough already that you risk your health with trying some strangely-acting and maybe harmful NPS (“Research Chemical”) instead of dropping an XTC, especially since MDMA is more affordable, and, unlike its NPS cousins, already proven to be relatively safe, and, will make you dance all night and is exactly what you are looking for.

As you like it, this is a bit about 5-MAPB and a few of its relatives available these days.

Tiësto & Ava Max – The Motto, from Drive, 2023

5-MAPB fumarate

Back in the days, Dutch MAMPB could have been surprisingly active: Slightly hallucinogenic with an enormous “ego-boost” and pleasant euphoria, but also was terrifying psychotic with nightmarish thoughts haunting you; probably induced by a little too much serotonin action. It was not made available for the international market.

With 5-APB and 6-APB (“benzofury”) surprisingly boring successors were made a hype by all means by the NPS industry. Cathinones had just gotten banned in the UK and the industry was pushing hard for a new cash-cow with 4-MMC and MDPV now illegal. 5-MAPB I remember having emerged a little later 5-MAPB Research Chemical.

How would drug dealers start a hype? By occupying Reddit, hijacking Wikipedia, and launching self-acclaimed harm reduction sites and forums. When Wikipedia, a German NPS compendium, Psychonaut Wiki, or Tripsit describe such NPS as “non-neurotoxic alternative to MDMA” with “5 – 8 hours” of “euphoria” if not total bliss then they are full of shit.

5-APB, 6-APB, and 5-MAPB are still around today.

6-APB brownisch powder; A New Psychoactive Substance as available in 2023
6-APB is a light-brown (light-tan) powder, while 5-MAPB is either dark brown or, usually, white. The bag says 5-MAPB because some vendor mixed up the substances.
6-APB is a light-brown (light-tan) powder. The bag said 5-MAPB because a vendor had mixed these two up. 5-MAPB would be white (snow) or brown (tan).

6-APB would slightly lift your mood, yes, but to make it really work in the narrower sense of party (google “enhanced music appreciation“), you would have to mix it with other substances, like beer, 2-fma and 4-ho-met, which some could find reads concerning and irresponsible for poly drug abuse unpredictable and could backfire in terrible ways, and they are damn right. Also, the good old days of proper 2-FMA available seem long gone.

6-APB may cause blurred sight and sometimes annoying hallucinations. The current batch that is around feels nice to some extend but is still disappointing. I especially dislike its taste and smell which I find unpleasant but is, after all, a good reminder not to insufflate, not even to mention to smoke – don’t even try!!! – such substances, but to put it in a capsule together with a pack of orange juice.

5-APB is quite similar, I think.

5-MAPB, currently available in two colors and three qualities, was not even worth mentioning if there wasn’t a vendor seemingly exclusively offering 5-MAPB fumarate which works and even if insufflated. It cannot be compared to a potent drug like XTC, of course, but made me happy for a while with no noticeable negative effects other than ending up in the nosebleed section, here we go again again.

A bag with white powder labeled 5M 5-MAPB on a wooden table
5-MAPB Research Chemical

5-MAPB fumarate (2022)
A bag with white powder labeled 5M 5-MAPB pinned with on cardboard
5-MAPB Research Chemical

5-MAPB fumarate (2022)
A bag with white powder labeled 5M 5-MAPB on ice
5-MAPB fumarate found at Predator’s Cafe (2022)

Signature Products vs. the Habit of pressing bunk into Pellets

I believe this very 5-MAPB fumarate is available exclusively with Predator RC. I call such “signature products” because they help vendors with brand recognition and make you spend more money hoping to find a batch of a substance somewhere that is of proper quality.

I guess, every vendor has such, even if they won’t necessarily tell you because they want you to spend money and not, by accident, exclusively order the only worthwhile product they stock. Predator goes as far as replacing parts of your order with their bunk 3-CMC if you tried to order interesting products only. True story.

Other examples for signature products:

An example for an exclusive product that no one else has in stock, but, also, is disappointing a little:

  • The Real RC‘s “DMC” (whatever it is, it can’t be Larocaine which is Dimethocaine)

Many shades of 5-MAPB

5-MAPB in the form of powders and in pellets and liquids
5-MAPB Research Chemical

5-MAPB white – 5-MAPB brown – 5-MAPB fumarate – Blue Bliss Pellets – Purple Mandala Mix – Borax Combo – Pink Stars Pellets – 2022
5-MAPB HCL Research Chemical sample (white powder) from 2022
5-MAPB Research Chemical

Whitish 5-MAPB HCL from TRC (2022)

5-MAPB HCL is available in the form of whitish and brownish powders with Lizard Lab’s batch receiving slightly better reviews than TRC’s one. The substance seems promising but, oddly enough, never really kicks in, which is just disappointing.

Borax Combo, Blue Bliss, Pink Star, Mandala Mix, etc. – Whatever fancy names, it remains the same: Pressing disappointing bunk batches into pellets remains bunk and a waste of time and money.

At a glance

  • 5-MAPB fumarate is available at Predator’s and seems the only one of the APB-family that could be worthwhile. 5-APB, 6-APB, and 5-MAPB HCL (or succinate) are not.
  • None of these substances is anything close to MDMA.