DMT street names and other names: slang, chemical names, and how to say it

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People search for DMT’s other names for different reasons: a word heard in a song or a chat, a label on a news story, or a worry about what a friend has. This guide lists the names that published and government sources actually record, explains the chemical names and how to say them, and sets out why a name is never proof of what is in a bag.

What are the main DMT street names?

Two agency pages give the clearest lists. The Alcohol and Drug Foundation, an Australian non-profit drug-information service, lists DMT’s other names as Dimitri, Deems, the spirit molecule, changa, fantasia, the glory and the sacrament (ADF, DMT). The US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) lists DMT as “also called: Businessman’s Trip” (NIDA, commonly used drugs charts). Evidence: established that these agencies list these names.

Lists like these are snapshots. Slang changes by place and year, and an agency page records what its writers have seen, not a complete or current vocabulary. We did not find a Canadian government page listing DMT slang. Evidence: unresolved for how widely each name is used today.

Why is DMT called Dimitri?

“Dimitri” is a person’s name that happens to contain the sounds of D, M and T, which is the most likely reason it stuck. That is our reading of the word, not a documented history: the sources that list it do not explain it, and we found no published study of where it came from (ADF, DMT). Evidence: unresolved.

What is changa?

Changa is a name for a smoking blend that contains DMT. It is a different product from DMT on its own, and a person told that something is “changa” has no reliable way of knowing what else is in it. We do not describe its ingredients. In a study of 3,778 DMT experiences posted to an online forum between 2009 and 2018, 165 reports (4.4%) mentioned changa (Lawrence et al., 2022). That was a self-selected sample of posts, not a survey of users. Evidence: preliminary.

What are DMT’s chemical and official names?

DMT is short for N,N-dimethyltryptamine. PubChem, the US National Library of Medicine’s chemistry database, gives its formula as C12H16N2 and its systematic name (the IUPAC name, from the international chemistry naming body) as 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-N,N-dimethylethanamine (PubChem, DMT). Canada’s drug law names it “N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) (3-[(2-dimethylamino) ethyl]indole) and any salt thereof” in Schedule III (Justice Laws, CDSA). Evidence: established.

Other identifiers show up on labels, lab reports and legal papers. PubChem records the CAS registry number 61-50-7 (a unique number for each chemical) and “DEA No. 7435”, the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s code for the substance. Its synonym list also tags “dimethyltryptamine” as an INN and a USAN, the international and US non-proprietary names used for drugs (PubChem, DMT). In the United States, DMT is in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (DEA, 2025). Evidence: established.

What does the “N,N” in N,N-DMT mean?

It tells you where the two methyl groups sit. A methyl group is one carbon atom with three hydrogens. DMT is tryptamine with two methyl groups put in place of the two hydrogen atoms on the nitrogen at the end of its side chain, as the DEA’s chemistry summary describes it (DEA, 2025). The “N,N” says both methyls are on that nitrogen (N), not somewhere on the ring. “NN-DMT” and “nn dmt” are just the same name typed without the comma. Our DMT chemical structure guide walks through the molecule atom by atom. Evidence: established.

The prefix matters because similar-looking names describe different molecules. 5-MeO-DMT, for example, has an extra methoxy group (an oxygen bonded to a methyl) on the ring; PubChem gives its formula as C13H18N2O and lists it under the title O-methylbufotenine (PubChem, 5-MeO-DMT). It is a separate compound with its own research record and legal position; see 5-MeO-DMT vs DMT. Evidence: established.

How do you pronounce DMT and dimethyltryptamine?

DMT is said letter by letter: “dee-em-TEE”, with the stress on the last letter. Merriam-Webster gives it as \ˌdē-(ˌ)em-ˈtē\ (Merriam-Webster, DMT). Evidence: established.

Dimethyltryptamine is said “dye-meth-ul-TRIP-tuh-meen”, with the main stress on “TRIP”. Merriam-Webster gives \ˌdī-ˌme-thəl-ˈtrip-tə-ˌmēn\, and defines the word as a hallucinogenic drug, C12H16N2, that is chemically similar to but shorter acting than psilocybin, “called also DMT” (Merriam-Webster, dimethyltryptamine). The “N,N” at the front is usually read as “en-en”. Evidence: established for the dictionary entries.

Why is DMT called the spirit molecule?

The phrase comes from the title of DMT: The Spirit Molecule, a book by Rick Strassman, MD, published by Park Street Press in December 2000 (Open Library record). It is a nickname, not a scientific term, and it carries a claim about spirituality that the evidence does not settle. The Alcohol and Drug Foundation lists it among DMT’s other names (ADF, DMT). We cover the book, the studies and what the name implies in why DMT is called the spirit molecule. Evidence: established that the name is in use.

Is DMT acid? How DMT differs from LSD

No. “Acid” is slang for LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), which NIDA describes as a lab-made substance derived from chemicals in fungi that grow on rye and other grains (NIDA, hallucinogens). DMT is a different molecule. PubChem gives LSD’s formula as C20H25N3O, with a larger fused-ring system, against DMT’s C12H16N2 (PubChem, LSD; PubChem, DMT). Both act mainly on the brain’s serotonin 5-HT2A receptor, which is why they get grouped together (NIDA, hallucinogens). Evidence: established.

They also differ sharply in timing. The DEA’s 2025 evaluation says DMT’s effects in clinical studies generally resolve within 30 to 45 minutes, and contrasts its short action with the extended periods associated with LSD (DEA, 2025). For a side-by-side comparison, see psilocybin, LSD and DMT: how they differ. Evidence: established.

Why do drug names matter for safety?

Because a name is a claim, not a test result. In unregulated markets, the word on a bag says what someone says it is. NIDA notes that NBOMes, a family of lab-made compounds, are sometimes sold as LSD but are more potent, with a higher risk of adverse effects (NIDA, hallucinogens). The same logic applies to anything sold under a DMT nickname. Evidence: established for the NBOMe example; no DMT-specific figure was found.

Canadian data show how often expectations are wrong. A student-run drug-checking service at a Canadian university tested 121 samples between September 2021 and April 2024. Nearly half (57, or 47.1%) were expected to be psychedelics, a group that included DMT and LSD. Across all 121 samples, 38 (31.4%) did not match what the person expected (Airth et al., 2025). The study did not report a figure for DMT alone. Evidence: preliminary (one small service).

Mixing unknown substances adds risk. A 2025 report described two deaths in the UK after DMT use, neither in the context of an ayahuasca ceremony. Both involved several other substances, including some that also raise serotonin activity, and the authors suggest serotonin syndrome (a dangerous excess of serotonin activity) may have contributed (Pullen et al., 2025). These are two case reports, so they show a possible risk, not how common it is. Evidence: preliminary.

Does a different name change DMT’s legal status?

No. Canada’s Schedule III entry covers N,N-dimethyltryptamine “and any salt thereof”, and section 2(2) of the Act extends it to any substance that contains it (Justice Laws, CDSA). Calling it Dimitri or changa does not change anything. For the full legal picture, see is DMT legal in Canada. This is general information, not legal advice. Evidence: established.

What we still don’t know

• Where “Dimitri”, “Deems” and “businessman’s trip” came from, and when. We found no documented origin for any of them.
• Which names are in use in Canada today. No Canadian government page we found lists DMT slang.
• How often products sold under DMT names contain something else. The Canadian drug-checking data we found do not break out DMT.

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