PHENCYCLIDINE (PCP)

The chemical nomenclature of phencyclidine is phenylcyclohexylpiperidine. The term “PCP” is used most often used when referring to this drug. The acronym PCP has two origins that are consistent. In the 1960s phencyclidine was trafficked as a peace pill (“PeaCePill”). PhenylCyclohexylPiperidine can also account for the PCP acronym.



PCP was first synthesized in 1926.3 It was developed as a human anesthetic in 1957, and found use in veterinary medicine as a powerful tranquilizer. In 1965 human use was discontinued because, as the anesthetic wore off confusional states and freightening hallucinations were common. Strangely, these side effects were viewed as desirable by those inclined to experiment with drugs. Today even the use of phencyclidine as a primate anesthetic has been all but discontinued. In 1978, the commercial manufacture of phencyclidine ceased and the drug was transferred from Schedule III to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act. Small amounts of PCP are manufactured for research purposes and as a drug standard.

The manufacture of PCP in clandestine laboratories is simple and inexpensive. The first clandestinely produced PCP appeared in 1967 shortly after Parke Davis withdrew phencyclidine as a pharmaceutical.4 The clandestine laboratory production of PCP requires neither formal knowledge of chemistry nor a large inventory of laboratory equipment. The precursor chemicals produce phencyclidine when combined correctly using what is termed “bucket chemistry”.

The opportunities for a contaminated product from a clandestine PCP are greatly enhanced because of the recognized simplicity of the chemical reactions in the production processes. The final product is often contaminated with starting materials, reaction intermediates, and by-products.

Clandestine laboratory operators have been known to modify the manufacturing processes to obtain chemically related analogues capable of producing similar physiological responses. The most commonly encountered analogues are N-ethyl-1-phenylcyclohexylamine (PCE), 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)- pyrrolidine (PCPy), and 1-[1-(2-thienyl-cyclohexyl)]-piperidine (TCP).

In the 1960s, PCP was distributed as a white to off-white powder or crystalline material and ingested orally. In recent years, PCP has been encountered as the base and dissolved in diethyl ether. The liquid is then placed into small bottles which are recognized to hold commercial vanilla extract. This ether solution is then sprayed on leaves such as parsley and smoked. PCP is commonly encountered on long thin dark cigarettes (“Sherms”) which have been dipped in the PCP/ether solution.