Hallucinogens in the context of "Amphetamines"

Cohoba is a Taíno transliteration for a ceremony in which the ground seeds of the cojóbana tree (Anadenanthera spp.) were used as a snuff via a Y-shaped snuff tube. Use of this substance produced a visionary or entheogenic effect. The cojóbana tree is believed by some to be Anadenanthera peregrina although it may have been a generalized term for psychotropics, including the quite toxic Datura and related genera (Solanaceae). The corresponding ceremony using cohoba-laced tobacco is transliterated as cojibá. This was said to have produced the sense of a visionary journey of the kind associated with the practice of shamanism.

The practice of snuffing cohoba was popular with the Taínos with whom Christopher Columbus made contact. However, the use of Anadenanthera powder was widespread in South America, being used in ancient times by the Wari culture and Tiwanaku of Peru and Bolivia, and also by the Piaroa of Venezuela and Colombia, and the Yanomami of Brazil and Venezuela. Other names for cohoba include vilca, cebíl, ñuá and yopó. In Tiwanaku culture, a snuff tray was used along with an inhalation tube.

Substituted amphetamines, or simply amphetamines, are a class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substituting, one or more hydrogen atoms in the amphetamine core structure with substituents. The compounds in this class span a variety of pharmacological subclasses, including stimulants, empathogens, and hallucinogens, among others. Examples of substituted amphetamines are amphetamine (itself), methamphetamine, ephedrine, cathinone, phentermine, mephentermine, tranylcypromine, bupropion, methoxyphenamine, selegiline, amfepramone (diethylpropion), pyrovalerone, MDMA (ecstasy), and DOM (STP).

Some of amphetamine's substituted derivatives occur in nature, for example in the leaves of Ephedra and khat plants. Amphetamine was first produced at the end of the 19th century. By the 1930s, amphetamine and some of its derivative compounds found use as decongestants in the symptomatic treatment of colds and also occasionally as psychoactive agents. Their effects on the central nervous system are diverse, but can be summarized by three overlapping types of activity: stimulant, psychedelic, and entactogenic. Various substituted amphetamines may cause these actions either separately or in combination.

Entactogens, also known as empathogens or connectogens, are a class of psychoactive drugs that induce experiences of emotional communion, oneness, connectedness, emotional openness—that is, empathy—as particularly observed and reported for experiences with MDMA. This class of drug is distinguished from the classes of hallucinogens or psychedelics and stimulants, although entactogens, for instance MDMA, can also have these properties. Entactogens are used both as recreational drugs and are being investigated for medical use in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, for instance MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Notable members of this class include the methylenedioxyphenethylamines (MDxx) MDMA, MDA, MDEA, MDOH, MBDB, and methylone, the benzofurans 5-APB, 5-MAPB, 6-APB, and 6-MAPB, the cathinone mephedrone, the 2-aminoindane MDAI, and the α-alkyltryptamines αMT and αET, among others. Most entactogens are amphetamines, although several, such as αMT and αET, are tryptamines. When referring to MDMA and its counterparts, the term MDxx is often used (with the exception of certain non-entactogen drugs like MDPV).