Butylone Stats & Data

Butylone was first synthesized in 1967 by Koeppe, Ludwig, and Zeile, who documented their work in a paper from that year. Following its initial synthesis, the compound remained an obscure product of academic chemistry for nearly four decades, receiving little attention outside of laboratory settings. The substance emerged on the designer drug market in 2005, when it began to be sold as a recreational product. Structurally, butylone bears the same relationship to methylone that MBDB bears to MDMA—both are beta-keto analogues of their respective parent compounds. Formal pharmacological research on butylone did not commence until 2009, when studies demonstrated that it undergoes metabolic processes similar to those of related cathinones such as methylone. As methylone's availability on the research chemical market declined, butylone became commonly sold alongside ethylone as a substitute or counterfeit for MDMA and methylone. These substances, along with other cathinones, have collectively come to be referred to as "Molly" in street terminology. Despite behavioral and pharmacological similarities to MDMA, butylone has a very short history of documented human use, and limited data exists regarding its full range of effects in humans.

The toxicity and long-term health effects of recreational butylone use do not seem to have been studied in any scientific context and the exact toxic dosage is unknown. This is because butylone has very little history of human usage. Anecdotal evidence from people who have tried butylone within the community suggests that there do not seem to be strong adverse effects attributed to using this substance at low to moderate doses and sparingly. It is strongly recommended that one use harm reduction practices when using this substance.

Effects aggregated from 16 experience reports (16 single-substance Erowid)

Each bar is the share of reports mentioning the effect; its whisker, and the band on the rows below, is the 95% interval: where the share could plausibly be with other reports of the same kind.

Too few reports for bars: these effects come from 16 single-substance Erowid reports, and a bar is drawn only from 20 reports or more. With fewer, a percentage cannot tell a common effect from a rare one. Counts are shown instead. Why 20?

Dose distribution from experience reports, one dose per report (the first listed). Doses above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out of the median and range and listed under each route: most are real heavy doses or overdoses, not mistakes.

From 34 of 46 recorded dose entries: those that state a weight (mg, g or µg), in routes with at least five of them. Values above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out; they can include real heavy doses and overdoses, not only mistakes.

Most co-occurring substances, as a share of all 31 reports filed under Butylone; whiskers are 95% intervals

Most common forms and preparations, as a share of the 18 reports that give one

Too few reports for bars: these forms come from 18 reports, and a bar is drawn only from 20 reports or more. With fewer, a percentage cannot tell a common effect from a rare one. Counts are shown instead. Why 20?

• Powder / Crystals 16 of 18
• Capsule 2 of 18

Dose per kg of body weight, one dose per report (the first listed), from reports giving a weight of 30–250 kg. Doses above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out of the median and range and listed under each route.

Redosing behavior across 18 reports