2C-E (2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine) is a psychedelic drug and phenethylamine first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin, sometimes used as an entheogen. It is commonly active in the 10-20 mg range, taken orally, and highly dose-sensitive. Insufflating (ie administering the chemical nasally) requires a much lower dose, typically not exceeding 5mgs, for noticeable effects, but tends to cause intense pain. Shulgin classified 2C-E as a member of the "magical half-dozen" in his book PiHKAL. Many have reported that the general effects of 2C-E are similar to those of the other psychedelic phenethylamines, but far more intense. Vivid hallucinations similar to those experienced while under the influence of LSD are common, and many reports would indicate that the effects of this particular chemical may be overly intense for those not well experienced with psychedelics. However, for those who are familiar with the compound, oral doses of 30+ mg are not uncommon and often produce no additional side effects than those described by users of lower doses.
Effects
The total duration of 2C-E's effects is generally between six and ten hours for an average dose, with the plateau lasting between three and six hours. For such a dose, the onset of effects takes approximately twenty to ninety minutes and perception may be somewhat altered for up to a day after ingestion. In extreme cases where between seventy-five and one hundred milligrams of 2C-E were ingested, the duration of effects has exceeded twenty-four hours, with plateaus exceeding ten hours in length and an onset of effects within the first five minutes after the ingestion of the drug . A few users of very high doses have reported "never feeling the same again" after having used this drug . The concurrent use of SSRIs generally has a palliative effect upon both the intensity and strength of the effects of 2C-E during their plateau stage.
As compared to similar compounds such as 2C-I and 2C-B, 2C-E has much more of an emphasis on strong synaesthesia, sound distortion and an enhancement of the experience of music, and, most notably, visuals. Some users have also reported mystical and ego death experiences. While many users of lower doses of 2C-E have reported that it produces mainly closed-eye visuals, users of higher doses have compared its open-eye visuals with those produced by LSD; a significant proportion of these comparisons have favored the visual effects of 2C-E in terms both of their geometric complexity and in the variety of colors seen during an experience.
At doses approximating or exceeding twenty to twenty-five milligrams, 2C-E can produce intensely colorful, highly complex, moving, fractal-like patterning, persian carpet-type visuals, three-dimensional visual effects, and, sometimes, visual patterning strongly resembling biological structures, such as vines, tentacles, and even eyeballs. The visuals produced by 2C-E are comparable in some respects to those produced by mescaline, and some users of both drugs have reported that the visual effects of 2C-E are more emphatic of color than are mescaline's corresponding effects, while mescaline's visuals are more emphatic of geometric structure.
2C-E's body load is a highly unusual one. Several users have described it, roughly, as a "profound feeling of bodily discomfort". It is sometimes characterized by urges to shift the position of one's body, strong nausea at high doses leading often to vomiting, itching, prolonged tensing of unusual combinations of muscle groups which can occur without the user's knowledge over a long period of time, diarrhoea, and an accompanying feeling of "disconnection from one's digestive tract". Some users report little or no body load on 2C-E, and describe in its stead strong euphoria; one user on Erowid reported that it produced a stronger euphoria than did cocaine, although this is extremely rare among 2C-E users. A negative body load is much more common than positive effects in this area.