An additional issue with both Anonymous and Joshua Robbins is the fact that both were using 2C-T-7 for the first time. 2C-T-7 is extremely variable in its dose response curve – as Alexander Shulgin, the substance's discoverer notes in his entry on 2C-T-7 in the encyclopedic Pihkal: "numerous people . . . have found 10 or so milligrams to be quite adequate for their tastes." (Note: he is speaking here only of oral doses.) Both Anonymous and Joshua Robbins may have been unusually sensitive to the effects of 2C-T-7 by itself, much less in combination with MDMA. (According to available reports, Mr. Duroy had ingested 2C-T-7 on one prior occasion, in the Summer of 2000, with no long-term adverse health consequences.)

The death of Jacob Duroy has been ruled a "2C-T-7 overdose" in the ME report, but as there are no known mechanisms by which such an overdose would cause death, this ruling is, at best, stabbing in the dark, and, at worst, a blatantly inaccurate statement designed to aid in the demonization of a drug. The cause of death was initially reported as aspiration of vomit, and a number of inconsistencies in the final report leave one wondering what precisely motivated the change in ruling. As only one instance of the problems in this report, toxicology was both able and unable to demonstrate the presence of 2C-T-7 in Mr. Duroy's blood.

While Mr. Duroy was using a high dose of 2C-T-7, he had used the substance previously (35 mg. Oral, followed seven hours later by 5 mg. IN, followed thirty minutes later by 15 mg IN) with no ill-effects than the normal twenty-minute nausea/burning pain associated with snorting 2C-T-7. This dose has also not proved uniformly fatal – I have reports from nearly a dozen people using this dose and route, and while not all of them had good trips, none complained of serious health problems. Mr. Duroy's friend who ingested the same dose on October 15, 2000 survived, with no apparent physiological harm. There are still enough questions surrounding the death of Mr. Duroy that a satisfactory resolution of them is probably a long way off – and in the meantime, using his death to demonstrate the perils of 2C-T-7 is dishonest. (We might as well conclude that the "evil spirit" he had been yelling about that day killed him.)

Another evident pattern is that two of the deaths involved insufflation. Available evidence tends to indicate that snorting 2C-T-7 increases it’s potency by two to three times (NOT five; see below), as well as increasing the negative physical side effects for most users. (though some appear immune to negative physical side-effects with any dose and method of administration) The first fifteen to twenty minutes after snorting tend to be related as extremely painful – the most frequent comparisons are "being kicked in the face by a horse" and "having a hot poker shoved up my nose." (It is important to note that people using "bumps" of 5 mg or less did not report any pain; this is not to suggest that anyone use this dose, but if you must insufflate 2C-T-7, available anecdotal evidence suggests that "bumps" will be considerably less uncomfortable, and you will be more effectively able to control your response to the drug.)

People also report severe nausea during this stage (people on oral doses also report nausea, but of those who have used both oral and insufflated doses, users report the nausea to be much worse via the nasal route, with the exception of two users who felt no nausea by either route). Doctor Shulgin's original research indicated minor rises in both heart rate and blood pressure during the experience, but these were "nothing of concern" (personal communication).

Some reports using higher oral doses or intranasal doses have indicated that there is a profound effect on blood-pressure: one report I saw on the Internet mentioned every vein in a person's face standing out while they were under the influence of 2C-T-7. Persons with pre-existing heart conditions are advised to stay the hell away from 2C-T-7, and users are advised to have trip sitters if they plan on using high oral doses and/or insufflated doses. Persons using high oral doses and/or insufflated doses have also reported a "tremor" phenomenon, involving continuous tension and relaxation of major muscle groups in the body. It is not clear that these qualify as convulsions in the majority of cases; however, these do seem to indicate a pronounced stimulant quality to the drug, and so caution is again advised.

In conversation with me, Alexander Shulgin stated that he had "no idea" how much 2C-T-7 increased in potency as a consequence of insufflation as "I've never snorted it in my life. All I know is what I read on the Internet." Mr. Boal apparently arbitrarily settled on the "factor of five" comment to make 2C-T-7 sound scarier – hardly the actions of a man who wanted to aid in an "honest debate" (p. 5) on the dangers of this substance. (Attempts to contact the friends of Joshua Robbins were unsuccessful, so it is unknown whether he similarly misattributed statements to them.)

None of this is to suggest that 2C-T-7 is "safe" – very far from it. This substance is still largely unresearched, so the possibility of unknown side-effects cannot be discounted. Nor does my "sample" represent a scientific study of 2C-T-7's effects upon human users. But the sword cuts both ways – more than a dozen people do not constitute a strong enough sample to make judgments about the relative safety (or lack thereof) of a chemical, no more than three people constitutes an adequate sample. I would like to see a rigorous scientific study of this drug and its effects, but hysterical pandering such as Mr. Boal's article will preclude that. Some observers in the "pro-drug" camp have tried to explain away the deaths as simply the isolated tragedies of idiots, but this also seems to largely miss the point. We don't know what is going on with 2C-T-7, nor are we likely to find out if we respond to this situation like we've responded to others of its type throughout the past forty years.

Further, even if the current set of deaths can be explained as other than "2C-T-7 overdoses" (which, as I've said, appears to me to be quite likely) this does not mean that the substance is not toxic at some dose level. Any substance becomes toxic at a particular concentration in the body. Leaving aside issues of physiological toxicity, 2C-T-7 can be an extremely powerful psychedelic experience (though interestingly many users reported feeling delighted with the fact that, compared to LSD or mushrooms, they were experiencing incredible sensory changes without any corresponding alteration of mental processes – one went so far as to say that this quality of 2C-T-7 made it his "favorite psychedelic").