# Schoolyard halllucinogen from the '70s called "locker room"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605 "2002-04-09T03:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Longmos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/278dde/32.png) [@Longmos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Longmos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/1 "2002-04-09T03:22:35Z")
When I was in elementary school back in the '70s, I remember a couple of my roguish schoolmates occasionally bringing a substance that, when inhaled, caused momentary dizziness and head spinning. No big deal, but at the time it was a real hoot. ( I know, stupid too, but we were twelve). I remember it was in a small dark jar, and looked vaguely like vaseline. It was called “Rush” or “Locker Room,” and these guys said they got it (suppposedly) legally at a (shady) truck stop. What was this stuff? ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/2 "2002-04-09T04:00:15Z")
Me and husband knew of it as rush-- he says it’s amyl nitrate. You might need corroboration on this, though (Of course I never did it-- I’m a girl!) ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/3 "2002-04-09T04:30:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capybara \* > \*\*Me and husband knew of it as rush-- he says it’s amyl nitrate. You might need corroboration on this, though (Of course I never did it-- I’m a girl!) \*\* If it was the 70’s It may well have been Amyl Nitrate. Sold as a ‘Room Deodorizor’ Until the Feds caught on and banned the sale without prescription. So the folks in the 80’s were sniffing Butyl Nitrate as ‘Rush’. which was a liquid in a little brown vial. Made your head feel like one of those old Tube TV’s, and someone was turning it on and off, without giving it time to warm up, so the picture was just bouncing up and down, Collapsing and expanding… I just dated myself, but anyone who was there will attest… ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/4 "2002-04-09T04:49:49Z")
Yeah, ‘Rush’ was the other name for amyl-nitrate…apart from its schoolyard functions, also used as a muscle relaxant in some gay circles to facilitate, ahh,…um…the um relaxation of the sphincter muscle. ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/5 "2002-04-09T04:51:13Z")
Around these parts it was sold as “Rush Liquid Incense.” I believe it was indeed amyl nitrate, although I have to confess I never tried it. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/6 "2002-04-09T05:03:07Z")
[Amyl Nitrite](http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/inhalants/inhalants_info1.shtml). > [@](#): > > The common poppers found in sexual circles came in tiny amber > bottles. Typically, these were sold as ‘room deoderizers’ or ‘incense’ > (an absurdity, since they smell like used socks) and came in many > names, such as “Rush,” “Jolt,” “Locker Room” (an honest name, at any > rate), “Jack Hammer,” ect. They were sold in adult bookstores. > … > It produces a head rush, a flushed feeling (you tend to > go bright red in the face sometimes - but not always) and a lack of focus > for a minute or so, followed by a ‘head shrinking brain hum’ (sorry, but > that’s the only way I can describe it since it’s been a while) then your > back. Your circulatory system is sped up as well, but not harmfully. ---
**Author:** ![Redboss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@Redboss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redboss)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/7 "2002-04-09T05:54:32Z")
An old 70’s style clone speaking now: - so are we clear it’s not an hallucinogen? It also probably wasn’t amyl nitrite since that was actually a medication (used for angina attacks), and its production and sale may have had legal ramifications. Butyl nitrite was used extensively, and then (I believe) when that was outlawed another form of nitrite would be manufactured until the authorities got wise to that one and so on. True, it could be used to relax the sphincter muscles, but that alone is rarely the reason for using it during sex. It’s more that fact that it has the instant and temporary (ninety seconds to two minutes) power of heightening physical sensation. Anything sensual becomes more intensely so, and one’s response feels more abandoned, and uninhibited. So, while making love it might be used every five minutes or so, and sharing amyl is a form of closeness for many gay men. Because it comes in those little bottles, learning to open and close the bottle with one hand while the other was busy, was one of my generation’s rites of passage. Similarly it has had a long history as a dance floor drug, because a snort can induce an overwhelming feeling of melting into the rhythm, the music and the crowd, and feeling a magical tribal one-ness. It’s also a drug that appeals to control queens because the effect is immediate, and lasts for such a short time. You are back in reality before long, and can either take more, or stay sober, as you choose. But the way it will not **ever** work (beyond that odd dizzy feeling) is inhaled behind the bike sheds at school, or sitting around on a sofa. There’s no way that trying it like that can give you any idea of the effects when used in a sensual situation. Very few heterosexual couples like using it. I suspect the reason is that the “abandoned and uninhibited” feeling is attractive to gay men in a way that it isn’t to straight couples. At one time Amyl was considered a possible cause of HIV/AIDS. This proved to be incorrect, and although inhaling substances is unlikely ever to be Good For You, it doesn’t seem to have serious consequences for health. Redboss ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/8 "2002-04-09T06:12:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Redboss \* > \*\* > It also probably wasn’t amyl nitrite since that was actually a medication (used for angina attacks), and its production and sale may have had legal ramifications. Butyl nitrite was used > . At one time Amyl was considered a possible cause of HIV/AIDS. This proved to be incorrect, and although inhaling substances is unlikely ever to be Good For You, it doesn’t seem to have serious consequences for health. \*\* Redboss is correct. None of that stuff was Amyl, it was all Butyl. Amyl was a prescription med that came usually in little glass vials the size of a capsule, or pill. It was used to relieive angina the way nitroglycerin is used today. However, I’ve read that while butyl did not cause AIDS, it helped advance the virus by decreasing ones immune system. It also can cause some heart damage if used in excess. It’s effect on **straight, hetero** sex was funky. It lowered blood pressure, yet increased heart rate, making time slow down for a while, thus making orgasm seem longer, more intense. ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/9 "2002-04-09T06:27:09Z")
Also, it makes you **CUT OFF YOUR FACE AND FEED IT TO YOUR DOGS!** Whoo, sorry, I freaked out there for a second. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/10 "2002-04-09T06:32:21Z")
Bwahaaaaaaaahah JRoot: Now where did THAT come from?? ---
**Author:** ![Redboss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@Redboss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redboss)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/11 "2002-04-09T08:01:59Z")
Hippies! hah. I **hate** it when they get acid flashbacks. Redgreen ohboy lookat all the colours!boss ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/12 "2002-04-09T09:46:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kambuckta \* > \*\*Bwahaaaaaaaahah JRoot: > > Now where did THAT come from?? \*\* _Hannibal_ ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schoolyard-halllucinogen-from-the-70s-called-locker-room/102605/13 "2002-04-09T12:05:14Z")
Poppers? Poppers? Anyone? Oh the headaches…