Phencyclidine

Phencyclidine

Clinical data
AHFS/Drugs.com	phencyclidine
Addiction liability	Moderate
Routes of administration	Injection, insufflation, smoking, oral
ATC code	none
Legal status
Legal status	AU: S8 (Controlled) CA: Schedule I DE: Anlage I (Controlled) UK: Class A US: Schedule II
Pharmacokinetic data
Onset of action	2 to 60 min
Biological half-life	7–46 hours
Duration of action	6 to 48 hours
Identifiers
IUPAC name 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)piperidine
CAS Number	77-10-1 Y
PubChem (CID)	6468
IUPHAR/BPS	4282
DrugBank	DB03575 Y
ChemSpider	6224 Y
UNII	J1DOI7UV76 Y
KEGG	C07575 Y
ChEBI	CHEBI:8058 N
ChEMBL	CHEMBL275528 Y
ECHA InfoCard	100.150.427
Chemical and physical data
Formula	C17H25N
Molar mass	243.387 g/mol
3D model (Jmol)	Interactive image
SMILES C1(C2(N3CCCCC3)CCCCC2)=CC=CC=C1
InChI InChI=1S/C17H25N/c1-4-10-16(11-5-1)17(12-6-2-7-13-17)18-14-8-3-9-15-18/h1,4-5,10-11H,2-3,6-9,12-15H2 Y Key:JTJMJGYZQZDUJJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Y
See also: data page
NY (what is this?)

Phencyclidine (PCP), also known as angel dust and Sernyl among others, is a dissociative drug. PCP was brought to market in the 1950s as an anesthetic pharmaceutical drug but was taken off the market in 1965 due to the high prevalence of dissociative hallucinogenic side effects. Moreover, the discovery of ketamine by Parke-Davis researchers was thought to represent a better-tolerated alternative for use as an anesthetic medication. Since this time a number of synthetic derivatives of PCP have been sold as dissociative drugs for recreational and non-medical use.

In chemical structure, PCP is a member of the arylcyclohexylamine class, and, in pharmacology, it is a member of the family of dissociative anesthetics. PCP works primarily as an NMDA receptor antagonist, where it blocks the activity of the NMDA receptor. As an addictive drug, PCP is associated with compulsive abuse.

As a recreational drug, PCP may be ingested orally, smoked, insufflated or injected.

PCP began to emerge as a recreational drug in major cities in the United States in 1967. In 1978, People magazine and Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes called PCP the country's "number one" drug problem. Although recreational use of the drug had always been relatively low, it began declining significantly in the 1980s. In surveys, the number of high school students admitting to trying PCP at least once fell from 13% in 1979 to less than 3% in 1990.