James Nolan, writing for VICE:
Mixing drugs is not a good idea. Most recently, Lil Peep's fatal cocktail of Xanax and fentanyl – along with cocaine and a slew of other opioids – was a reminder of what can go wrong when we treat our bodies like Year 7 science experiments. However, in 2019, with marathon club nights not uncommon, and rollover house parties picking up where they leave off, it may now be more novel if only one drug is used over the course of a session.
Cue the increased popularity of "flipping" – taking two or more substances (one usually a hallucinogen, one usually MDMA) at timed intervals to synergise their effects. A brief etymology explainer: when you take a psychedelic like shrooms, you trip. When you take MDMA, you roll, so a trip plus a roll equals a flip. Thanks to the dark net, substances like DMT and 2C-B – drugs that are integral to some flips, but hard to find on the street – are more readily available, while the popularity of drug talk on message-boards like Reddit has allowed many to discover these flips, hype them up and ultimately tick them off their lists like saucer-eyed stamp collectors.
Again, mixing drugs is not a good idea. In fact, it's often an actively bad one. But for those who are going to do it anyway, it's important to have as much knowledge about what you're putting in your body as possible. […]
I spoke to some of these "flippers" to find out whether there's more to this phenomenon than simply young men and women wanting to get as fucked as they possibly can.
One or two of the drug combinations included in this piece do seem a little foolish to me, and of course combining multiple types of drugs together can result in a variety of problems, but I don’t agree with the blanket advice that “mixing drugs is not a good idea.”
That’s because some of my most transformative experiences in life were catalyzed by consciously experimenting with polydrug use. And I know that I’m not the only person in the world who has benefitted from this practice. There’s a difference between approaching drug combining with proper preparation and respect and simply attempting to get as fucked up as possible. Denying that the former is possible and realistic only tells one side of the story.
However, with that said, drug combining can indeed be incredibly dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, potentially even causing permanent psychosis or death. Last January I wrote a piece for Psychedelic Times about how to use TripSit’s ‘Guide to Drug Combinations’ chart. If you’re interested in experimenting with drug combining, I’d advise you to check it out. But whether you’re already deep into polydrug use, poly-curious, or adamantly against it—get educated and be safe out there.