PCP - Phencyclidine 2, 7, 11 - 1971

PCP - Phencyclidine 2, 7, 11  -  1971

(NOTE: Phencyclidine or phenylcyclohexyl piperidine (PCP), also known as angel dust among other names, is a dissociative hallucinogenic drug used for its mind-altering effects. PCP may cause hallucinations and distorted perceptions of sounds.)

It was the summer of 1971. Zed and Ben had recently graduated in chemistry and were sharing a room in an apartment and trying to save money to travel. They were both 21 years of age.

After returning from a drinking session in the local pub, they shared a couple of joints and Ben produced a glass phial containing a clear liquid.

Zed asked what it was.

"PCP. Phencyclidine. They use it to make Angel Dust. It's a trip," said Ben.

Well, although Zed was quite drunk, he wasn't going to simply swallow an unknown liquid of unknown strength at midnight.

So he asked Ben where he got it and how many trips were in the phial.

"I don't know," said Ben, "I got if from Denny. She gave it to me to keep safe because her husband is in hospital. He made it. He's OK though, just took too much!"

"Wow, fuck, I'm not sure about that. Let's have a look," said Zed.

Ben handed the phial to Zed who opened and warily took a sniff.

"It's carbon tetrachloride," said Zed, "I'm not drinking that.#

"I reckon it's dissolved in it 'cos PCP may not be soluble in water. So if we pour it onto hot water it may evaporate off and the trips will be in the water or maybe crystallize out."

"Yeah, OK, let's do it."

Denny was actually married to the chemist that had made the drug but she was also having a relationship with Ben. On occasion Zed simply went out for hours so that Ben could enjoy his time with her. Layla was not with them at that time though.

Having performed the experiment, they did indeed see crystals forming on the top of the water which they had put in a glass tumbler.

Ben suggested that they dip cigarette papers in to collect the crystals, as he said it was like LSD in blotting paper, but they did not have blotting paper. As Ben dipped a paper, Zed saw him lick his fingers. Another paper, another lick.

"Stop licking your fingers!" he said.

Soon Ben had placed six papers to dry out.

"I think we should drink the rest," he said.

"Well I guess most of it must be on the papers," said Zed.

"I'll get some orange juice and we'll drink half each."

Zed went to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of orange squash and a second glass. He poured half the solution from the one glass to the other, added some squash it with a pencil.

He picked up his half glass and swallowed half of it.

Ben picked up his own half glass and swallowed the lot. Then, without warning, he drained Zed's glass too.

Listening to some Jimi Hendrix on the stereo, Zed decided to write down his experiences on this substance and found himself a pen and notebook. Then he sat back, closed his eyes, listened to the music and floated away.

It wasn't long before Zen heard Ben moaning. He opened his eyes to see Ben laying on his back on the mattress on the floor, waving his arms around and frothing at the mouth. Needless to say, Zed panicked and started to wonder whether the same thing was about to happen to him.

So he grabbed his notebook and looked for his pen; the pen was nowhere to be seen. All there was handy was a yellow-inked pen. So he picked up his yellow pen and wrote in his notebook.

"Ben is laying on the floor frothing at the moth and waving his arms around, Foxy, Foxy Lady."

Hendrix was still playing on the stereo.

Zed wrote nothing about what they had consumed or how much of it.

It wasn't long before Zed realised that Ben needed help but Zed was in no position to give it. It all became very real for him.

Zed by now was becoming very confused about what was actually happening and what was happening in his brain; he was becoming increasing concerned that he may end up semi-conscious, like Ben. In fact, Ben looked unconscious now. Hendrix stopped singing and Zed put the record back to the beginning (it was vinyl in those days).

Zed decided to go upstairs and wake up Chris, whom he trusted.

As he started to climb the wooden stairs they changed to large stone steps, with plants and creepers down the wall, which was now like the face of a cliff. To his other side there was a long drop to the valley below. It was not so easy climbing the stones steps as they kept moving, but he made it to the top where there was a massive rough wooden door with magical symbols carved into it; stars, moons, pyramids. He banged loudly on the door, as one would do with a door that size.

Moments later the door opened and Zed saw Gandalf, or some other wizard, dressed in a dark blue gown with stars and moons on it. The wizard looked disheveled and displeased. "What you banging for?" he asked.

It was at that point that Zed remembered he was actually upstairs in the apartment, talking to Chris, who was wearing his dressing gown and had just got out of bed. Zed realised that in fact he had been banging on the bedroom door, rather loudly. There was no massive wooden door, no symbols carved on it, no creeping plants and no cliff.

He explained the problem with Ben, to Chris, but Chris seemed drunk and did not seem to fully understand what Zed was saying. Nevertheless, Chris followed Zed downstairs. As soon as he saw Ben, Chris suggested phoning a doctor. He told Zed to go out to the phone box and dial his doctor, whose number was 271127, while he, Chris, stayed with Ben.

Zed had no problem with that and the doctor, a woman, said she would be there as soon as she could.

By the time Zed got back home, the doctor was pulling up outside in her car. She went in to see Ben and straightaway asked what he had eaten and drank; had he attempted suicide?

Zed was not keen on telling her that they had both taken PCP but wanted to tell her also that he was sure that Ben had not tried to kill himself. So he told her they had been drinking a lot of beer and that Ben had taken some sort of drug. She seemed happy with that but said she would have to call an ambulance. She left the apartment and returned a while later. It was not long before the ambulance turned up. They carried Ben to the ambulance and told Zed he could go along; they were taking Ben to a local hospital to pump out the contents of his stomach.

Zed was not keen on that, but agreed and went along. He noticed that the ambulance crew had numbers on their lapels. One was number 11 and the other was number 27.

Zed himself was experiencing both the outer world, which was looking very strange and magical, and the inner world which was filled with images and ideas. He felt as if he was thinking on several levels, and existing on several more. He remembered the number on the apartment was 7.

When they arrived at the hospital, they carried Ben on a stretcher to the inside to a ward and put him on a bed behind a screen. Zed was told to wait at the other end of this very large room. He could see a nurse and one of the ambulance drivers chatting down by the screened bed. They were laughing, probably flirting, he thought. Yet when he looked closed they appeared quite grotesque, their faces and bodies mis-shapen; they sounded as if cackling now, like witches at a caldron.

Soon the nurse came over to Zed; she looked OK again now, and was smiling. She told Zed that Ben was to be stomach-pumped to remove the poisons. After that, she said, Zed could go with his friend when they took him to another hospital. She seemed very close to him, smiling and he could feel the warmth from her. Was she now flirting with him?

It seemed like a long wait, then the nurse came back and offered Zed a cup of tea, saying that in ten minutes or so they would take Ben to the other place. Zed refused the tea though; he did not feel safe drinking it.

It seemed a lot longer than ten minutes; in fact this whole episode so far seemed like several days but when they got outside it was still dark. Zed asked the time. It was three o'clock in the morning. They had only left the pub about four hours ago!

Soon they arrived at the other hospital and Zed followed as they wheeled Ben into a ward.

An extremely tall doctor approached Zed; he was quite lanky with long blond hair flowing behind his white coat, a stethoscope on his chest and a pair of spectacles that were much too big for him.

"Hi man," said the doctor, "What's he on? It's a bum trip I think, but do you think he tried suicide?"

The doctor did not seem to realise that Zed was seeing everything multi-coloured and distorted, and his brain was operating at least ten times faster than normal. Zed was listening but analysing everything said on several levels.

Why was the doctor calling him "man"? Was he a real doctor? Did doctors really talk about bum trips?

Zed did not want to tell that guy anything other than he was sure Ben had not tried suicide, that they had gone out drinking and then he had seen Ben take something but he did not know what it was.

The doctor character seemed to shrink in size and started to grin like a crazy man. A few more questions, not answered by Zed, and the white-coat guy who had somehow cut off most of his blond hair told him to go home and come back later.

So Zed left the hospital. Once outside he mused that he did not know where he was. He spotted two nurses and asked the time; it was now 7 seven o'clock. Time had passed very quickly since three o'clock. He asked what hospital it was. "West Norwich," one of the nurses answered.

"I have to get home to Earlham Road," he said, "Do you know if there is a bus going there?"

"Yes," replied the nurse. "Which part of Earlham Road?

"Near the Black Horse pub, said Zed.

"You can get a number 11 to the Castle," she explained, "then change and get number 27."

"OK, thanks," he nodded "Number 11 then 27!"

Zed had no problem getting home but he did in fact walk. It was just about 30 minutes walking and the sun was shining; he felt good although he felt bad about Ben and was worried in case his landlord found out, or even the police.

He kept noticing that the numbers 2, 7, 11 22 and 27 were everywhere and felt as if the Universe was trying to send him some sort of coded message.

He returned to the apartment, number 7. Chris was still asleep. Zed went to his own room, lay on the mattress and soon fell asleep. He awoke a while later and looked at his clock. It was 7 minutes past 11!

Zed still felt high; it was as if he had not been to sleep at all; but he had a strange memory of meeting Timothy Leary, the so-called "acid guru" and Jimi Hendrix. Leary had explained something about how the Universe was made of numbers and Hendrix had told him that music was numbers too.

Zed devised a plan; he would have breakfast and go back to the hospital to see Ben; after that he would go to see Ben's girlfriend lover, Denny, the wife of the chemist that had made the PCP and try to find out more about it. He hoped that he could leave the hospital with Ben.

So, Zed went back to the hospital. Again he walked and again he kept noticing the numbers, 2, 7, 11, 17, 22, 27. He asked himself what was the significance. Was it some sort of message? Was it a mathematical sequence? Was it some sort of reference to somewhere on a map, or maybe to a passage in a book such as The Bible? Of course, soon it became a game of simply spotting the numbers.

When he arrived at the hospital ward, he was greeted by a Matron who said that the doctor wanted to see him before he could see Ben, but that Ben was awake and recovering from his ordeal. She led Zed into a small side-room, where a doctor in his white-coat and stethoscope uniform sat behind a desk. Zed though he was like some sort of witch doctor.

"Hi man," said the doctor, "sit down please. I'd like to ask you what your friend Ben took last night, because it was a bummer trip for him. It's better for him if we know what he took and why in case it was a suicide attempt."

"No, I'm pretty sure he didn't try to kill himself," said Zed, "He'd been drinking beer all night then I think he took a pill or something but I don't know what it was."

Zed did not like the questions. His mind was operating on multiple levels.

Soon the doctor said he wished he knew and then told Zed to go out and along the corridor to room 7, at the end, where he could see Ben.

"Number 7? At the end?"

Ben was laying on his back alone in the small room, naked on a bed with bars at each side to stop falling out. As Zed approached, Ben looked up, looking startled.

"You are real! Wow I thought you were just part of my dream."

Ben explained that he had woken up and they said he was in hospital but the bed had bars on so he thought it weird and he may have been crazy. He said he had thought that Zed and the whole university time had been a dream. Then he said that he had been with Jimi Hendrix and Timothy Leary and they had given him some numbers: 2, 7 and 11.

Ben said that he had been instructed in the secret of eternal life. Somebody had told him that food was the cause of death and if we stopped eating and survived on only cosmic energy, we could live forever..

Zed was blown away for a while that Ben was talking about the same numbers and Hendrix and Leary although he didn't know about cosmic energy and not eaten. He had eaten that day already, anyway.

Ben explained that he had woken up naked and didn't know where his clothes were. He said he wanted to see Denny. Zed promised to go to visit Denny at her house and tell her where Ben was.

On the way out he asked the Matron to give Ben his clothes. She said that Ben was refusing to eat or drink so they were not releasing him, for his own good. He went back to Ben and told him. Ben was adamant that he was eating or drinking nothing.

Zen left and took a walk across the city, about an hour or so, and arrived at Denny's place, knocked the door and was let in by Denny herself. She was a slight but shapely lady with short fair hair and a good smile. She had a warm personality and Zed got on with her well, despite not really approving of her relationship with both Ben and her chemist husband as he was friends with both of them.

Zed explained what had happened and that Ben was OK but still in hospital, but when he told her which hospital she asked about the doctor. But Zed could only describe him, he did not know the doctor's name. Yet is did seem to be the same doctor, Denny said, as the one that had treated her husband. So she explained that she could not go to visit Ben. Zed would have to go back to the hospital to tell him. She made some tea and cheese sandwiches for Zed and then she rolled a couple of joints, which they shared.

Zen left and walked back to the hospital, He went straight into the ward and to the end of the corridor to room 7, quickly past any nurse, matron or doctors that could be lurking in wait. He walked into the room and saw a middle-aged lady sitting on a chair next to Ben who was sitting up in bed, now dressed.

He introduced himself as Ben's friend and the lady said she was Ben's mother, from London. The hospital had called her. She asked Zed what he had given Ben. She was blaming Zed!

So it had become complicated now.

Ben's mother was blaming Zed.

The doctor said Ben could go after he had eaten and drank something.

Ben did not want to.

Ben's mother would only take him if he went back to London with her.

Ben would only go to London if Zed went along.

Denny and Ben would not be seeing each other for a while.

Chris was back at the apartment probably wondering what was happening; Ben and Zed would have to go there to pack some clothes.

Zed knew he was still under the effect of the PCP and he knew Ben was probably still tripping. He realised that it was going to be upon him to persuade Ben to eat and drink and get him out of there.

It surprised him when a few logical words to Ben later, having told him straight and simply that if he did not eat they were not going to let him go. Ben agreed to eat bread and some fruit and to drink water.

And so it was that the pair of them went to London and stayed a few days at Ben's parent's flat, way up in a high-rise block near Swiss Cottage.

The two lads agreed that they had both actually had a good time and the following day they felt normal.

Ben had arranged to have his eyes tested the next day. They both went out, smoked a couple of joints and Ben went to the opticians. He later told Zed that the eye test was stupid and it was just lights moving around.

When Ben got the spectacles, he tried them once and then he threw them away.