editorial comment The storm troopers at work again!

With a notice in the Federal Register on September 29, the DEA issued a "final rule" placing the psychedelic typtamines Alpha-Methyltryptamine (AMT) and 5-Methoxy-N,N-Diisopropyltryptamine (Foxy Methoxy) in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It has been illegal to buy, sell, or possess either substance without a DEA license since April 2003, when the agency temporary placed them on Schedule I. The final rule makes permanent the temporary scheduling that took effect last year.

Typically, substances may be temporarily scheduled for no more than one year, but in March 2004, the DEA published a notice that proceedings to permanently schedule AMT and Foxy Moxy were underway, thus gaining another six months to do so. That six-month grace period expired two days after the DEA's latest Federal Register notice.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, substances may be classified as Schedule I only if the meet three criteria: that they have a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and are not safe for use under medical supervision. According to the DEA, AMT and Foxy Methoxy meet those criteria. (Never mind for now that the DEA also says that marijuana meets those criteria.)

AMT and Foxy Methoxy share their mind-warping properties with other tryptamines, including DMT and psilocybin. The tryptamines were explored by chemist Sasha Shulgin, who first synthesized Foxy Methoxy in 1981, and who is cited in the DEA's final rule. According to the DEA, AMT has subjective effects similar to amphetamines and MDMA (Ecstasy), while Foxy Methoxy's effects are more akin to those experienced with LSD.

The designer drugs came to the attention of federal regulators in the 1990s, when they began appearing as an adjunct to Ecstasy and other drugs in the European rave scene. In the past several years, the DEA reported, the psychedelic pair crossed the Atlantic, exciting the agency's worry. DEA described the use of AMT and Foxy Methoxy as an "emerging problem" at raves and clubs in Arizona, California, Florida, and New York. AMT and Foxy Methoxy may be an emerging problem, but not a very big one, according to the DEA's own statistics. The agency has filed only 14 AMT cases since 1999 and 32 Foxy Methoxy cases.

With psychedelics such as AMT and Foxy Methoxy, warns the DEA, "the alteration of sensory perception and judgment can pose serious health risks to the user and the general public." And to consensus reality. Find out more about AMT and Foxy Methoxy at the Vault of Erowid's respective web pages for each substance, http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/amt/amt.shtml and http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/5meo_dipt/5meo_dipt.shtml online.

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