Cyclobenzaprine

as sampled by Matthew Gorman

This month's Vice is a little something I recently bought a bottle of from some random guy at one of my local watering holes, the antidepressant and skeletal muscle relaxant, Cyclobenzaprine. And while one doesn't get incredibly high from this particular chemical catalyst known on the streets as "cyclone" or "mellow yellow" (two extremely disparate monikers, if you ask me), it gets you very relaxed and mixes well with small amounts of alcohol (obviously these are my personal instructions as the manufacturer or a licensed pharmacist would warn you to the contrary).

Cyclobenzaprine is most commonly marketed under the brand names Flexeril (which is available in 5 and 10mg tablets) and Fexmid (which comes in a 7.5mg tablet) and is typically prescribed for pain resulting from muscle spasm, such as injuries incurred by whiplash in automobile accidents. It is sometimes prescribed as a sleep aid as well due to its sedative effects (I remember giving my buddy a couple at the bar and telling him he ought to drive home before they kicked in. Ha, ha, ha, good times, good times!).

Medical science is still somewhat unclear as to just what cyclobenzaprine's mechanism of action is on the receptors of the human brain, although it is generally theorized and recent evidence suggests that cyclobenzaprine acts upon the region of the brain known as the locus coeruleus where it inhibits the uptake of the hormone norepinephrine resulting in a trysynaptic norepinephrine build up which studies have shown have analgesic effects upon the human body. Cyclobenzaprine also affects alpha motor neurons in the ventral horn of the spinal cord that contributes to its muscle relaxant properties.

Although Cyclobenzaprine is legal only with a prescription it is not considered a controlled substance in most states (Georgia is one exception, for example) and it doesn't have a large user base on the streets like other prescription analgesics and muscle relaxants.

It has a low risk of addiction and evidence suggests that withdrawal from the drug is not particularly severe. Also cyclobenzaprine is useful as a potentiator of weaker opioids. So say you have some lame-ass low dose Vicodin or worse yet, those god-awful Tylenols with the codeine from Canada, you can kick them into overdrive with the addition of some "cyclone" and hopefully make them feel more like Oxycodone. Later gators!