Etizolam or “etizzy” is a benzodiazepine-like drug that produces the five characteristic benzo effects: relax, don’t worry, sleep, get loose with it, and don’t have a seizure.

Molecularly, it’s quite similar to benzos like Klonopin, Xanax, or phenazepam, but the benzene ring that makes them “benzos” is replaced with a thiophene ring, making etizolam a thienodiazepine — a unique property which, some say, makes etizolam less addicting than benzos. Some said that about Ambien and barbiturates, and we all know how that went. At the end of the day, etizolam rims the same brain holes that alcohol and benzos do. Etizolam is not covered by the Federal Analog Act, leaving it in a grey zone.

Like the girls that leave me alone in my bed by morning, etizolam comes via India and Japan. Average recreational dose starts at 2mg; 3mg is a heavy dose. Like phenazepam, each dose is absurdly cheap. Online pharmacies sell boxes of “Etilaam” or “Sedekopan” around $5 a dose. These are pharmaceutical quality, but there is a chance of counterfeits that contain less or no active ingredients. “Pellets” are more inconsistent in quality but just $2-$3 a dose. Pure powder comes even cheaper; if you find a reliable distributor, you can get 98% purity. A handle of decent liquor is around $35, and for that you can get 50 doses of etizolam pellets and around 75 doses of powder. Mixing with other CNS depressants (alcohol, benzos) is a black out ride down a highway to coma and death. Withdrawals can kill you.

All benzos and etizolam are pointless for snorting.

Pellets administered orally or sublingually are best. If you go the bulk powder route, you’ll need to commit to volumetric dosing (which is covered in the phenazepam article).

If you are really irresponsible and I can’t stop you, know that cheap milligram scales aren’t sensitive at the extremes of their range. Weigh 10mg instead and then divide it visually into as equal of piles as you can get. Pure etizolam powder will be white and crystalline. It will have no taste, so you can pop it under your tongue for the fastest come-up.

Etizolam would have remained an eccentricity of doctors in India and Japan, were it not for the internet. By linking drug enthusiasts who have too much chemistry knowledge with cheap foreign chemical companies, the internet created a boom in “designer drugs” or “research chemicals.” This is what mutated a forgotten French diet pill into the beast that we call bath salts. Etizolam was an already existing drug that came to light around the time phenazepam (my second most destructive Russian lover) came into prominence. Phenazepam is cheaper, lasts longer, and more powerful; on the other hand, it lasts way too long. I prefer a one-night stand versus a clingy psychotic. Etizolam is a less subtle, but gentler partner than phenazepam.

Etizolam comes to attention fast. Within 15 minutes, you start feeling relaxed, cheerful. You can feel yourself getting a bit loose. The anxiety that keeps you from dancing melts away. You’re drowsy, but you can take it. If you can stay awake, she’ll dance with you for 4-6 hours and melt into the crowd. You’ll be standing there, feeling the vapors disappear rapidly, content and still up with talking all night.

Our bodies find thienodiazepines like etizolam relatively easy to oxidize, metabolize and excrete. The faster metabolism makes etizolam hit harder and leave sooner. However, thienodiazepines have strange side effects, like the increase in prolactin levels in the blood which encourages you to make milk. I haven’t heard of guys spurting white stuff from different holes than they’re used to, but be sure to tell me if this entertaining side effect happens to you.

Etizolam’s full agonist action at GABA, similar to benzos, is what creates the fun. Another strange behavior here is its reverse tolerance. Instead of the neurons becoming desensitized to GABA and you requiring higher and higher doses to sustain yourself, they actually caused the reverse. You get more sensitive over time.

I am less optimistic than the researchers that discovered these properties. A drug that gets stronger over time, that acts the same way as other highly addictive drugs, that disappears fast from the body sounds like an invitation for abuse. We’ll slam that lever, over and over, for more and more, and because it leaves so fast, its withdrawals will be more severe and acute.

Two more strange side effects come with long term use — blepharospasms (your eyelids twitching so bad you can’t see) and the very rare chance of skin lesions. Nothing krokodil level, but personally I’d rather keep all my skin.

Already anecdotal reports of addiction have emerged from the seedy, powder-covered underbelly of the internet of chronic use and doses of up to 16mg. They’re accompanied by horror stories that sound eerily familiar to phenazepam: Waking up to new big screen TVs, crashing a car, and a divorce. I keep a condom in a bag or a purse for other reasons, but better safe than sorry.

If overdosing, immediate hospitalization is required. Just tell them it’s a benzo overdose. The ceremony stays the same. They’ll get an IV and put a plastic tube way too far up inside your arm. They’ll crack your throat open and put a way too wide tube down it. And after you get discharged, they’ll stick you with a way too expensive bill that will make you wish you’d have taken 1mg less and just ended up renting a room in the Waldorf Astoria with a half finished bottle of Dom Perignon and the girl who is now nowhere to be found.

Have fun; try not to die.

Backdoor Pharmacist did quaaludes, benzos, mephedrone, “molly,” kratom, 2C-I, 25I-NBOMe, sleeping pills, more sleeping pills, smart drugs and “bath salts.” Backdoor Pharmacist makes “liver magic,” dreams of a better world, doesn’t want you to rot or overdoze and does NOT drink coffee.