Dragonfly

Bromo-Dragon Fly (Bromo-benzodifuranyl-isopropylamine)

Streetname

B dragonfly, B-Fly, Fly

General Info

A potent hallucinogenic psychoactive substance, popular at British festivals, is causing concern amongst health professionals. Bromo-Dragonfly is known to be active in very low doses. Although commonly related to Phenethylamine, it has a distinct structure and belongs to a class of substances called benzodifurans. Pure BDF is white to off-white.

B-fly was initially identified by the European Union’s Project through searches conducted in Italy, Norway, Belgium and Finland in 2008. However, first reported cases of recreational abuse can be traced back to 2001.

It is typically sold online in the form of blotter paper, liquid and less commonly as pills. Its primary route of administration is oral. After ingestion the onset of its effects can be delayed for up to 6 hours. This delay has often led users to ingest another dose of the product thinking that the first dose was inadequate to cause the effects and/or to use additional drugs while waiting for the first psychoactive effects to appear.

B-fly is a very toxic substance and the risk of overdose is very high. Since 2007 various hospitalisations and fatalities have been recorded in various EU Member States such as Sweden, Denmark and the UK. In October 2009, Bromo-Dragonfly received increased attention in online drug forum communities, when a batch was mislabelled and sold by an online retailer as the related, but much less potent, Benzodifuran compound 2C-B-Fly. This has been linked to a number of subsequent fatalities and non-fatal overdoses in Europe and the US.

Effects

Similar to LSD but much longer lasting (2 -3 days) - A trip can appear to involve a speeding up and slowing down of time and movements, while colour, sound and objects can get distorted. Users experience hallucinations (seeing and/or hearing things that aren’t there)
Feeling tired, anxious, panicky and depressed
Unpleasant, frightening or scary hallucinations and distortions of your senses – and these effects can be quite unpredictable
Takes a long time before effects kick in and then can last for 2-3 days

Risks

Reported adverse reactions include: nausea and vomiting, headache, hypertension, tachycardia, elevated blood pressure, lung collapse, gastrointestinal disturbances, muscle tension, tremor, body temperature fluctuations, anxiety, panic attacks, arrhythmia, heart murmurs, slight pupil dilatation, convulsion, stomach tightness, hallucinations, flashbacks, memory disturbances, confusion and even acute anxiety attacks
Could have serious, longer-term implications for somebody who has a history of mental health problems. It may also be responsible for setting off a mental health problem that had previously gone unnoticed
Risk of overdose as effects take time to develop and so users may re-dose thinking that they require more of the drug

Class

Unclassified