What is 5-MeO-DMT? The molecule, the research and the law in Canada

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5-MeO-DMT is a close chemical relative of DMT, but researchers treat it as a separate drug with its own pharmacology, risks and clinical program. This page explains what the molecule is, where it occurs, what studies report and where it stands in Canadian law. For a side-by-side comparison with DMT, read 5-MeO-DMT vs DMT.

What is 5-MeO-DMT, chemically?

5-MeO-DMT is a tryptamine: an indole ring, like the one in serotonin, with a short side chain ending in a nitrogen that carries two methyl groups. Its full chemical name is 2-(5-methoxy-1H-indol-3-yl)-N,N-dimethylethanamine and its formula is C13H18N2O (PubChem, CID 1832). The “5-MeO” part is a methoxy group (an oxygen bonded to a methyl group) at position 5 of the ring. Without it, the molecule would be DMT. Evidence: established.

It has several names. PubChem lists O-methylbufotenine and the international nonproprietary name mebufotenin among its synonyms (PubChem, CID 1832). The drug-development literature now uses mebufotenin: the 2026 phase 2b trial describes GH001 as “a synthetic formulation of inhaled mebufotenin” (Cubała et al., 2026). Our DMT chemical structure guide shows the shared skeleton part by part. Evidence: established.

Where does 5-MeO-DMT occur in nature?

Its best-known source is an animal. The Sonoran Desert toad, Incilius alvarius (formerly Bufo alvarius), is described as the only animal known to secrete 5-MeO-DMT as a chemical defence. A 2025 field study around Tucson, Arizona found it in the secretions of every Sonoran Desert toad sampled and not in the other toads living alongside them. Diet did not explain the difference, so the authors suggest the toad makes it itself or with a microbe’s help (Luccioni et al., 2025). Evidence: preliminary, from one study. The animal itself is covered in our Sonoran Desert toad guide.

It also occurs in plants. A 2022 review reports small amounts in the seeds, bark or leaves of a few South American plants (Reckweg et al., 2022). We deliberately do not list them. A second review says it was first isolated from a plant in 1959 (Ermakova et al., 2022). Evidence: established.

Whether people make it is unsettled. The 2022 narrative review notes that some older studies reported 5-MeO-DMT in human blood, urine or cerebrospinal fluid, while several others found none (Ermakova et al., 2022). For the parallel question about DMT, see does the brain make DMT?. Evidence: unresolved.

How does 5-MeO-DMT act in the body?

Most classic psychedelics work mainly through the 5-HT2A receptor. 5-MeO-DMT is unusual. A 2022 review of two binding studies on cloned human receptors reports that it binds most strongly to the 5-HT1A receptor, with 300 to 1,000-fold higher selectivity for it than for 5-HT2A (Reckweg et al., 2022). It still acts at 5-HT2A; the balance is what differs. Evidence: established in binding studies. Our DMT and the 5-HT2A receptor article explains that receptor.

The body clears it quickly. The same review says 5-MeO-DMT is broken down mainly by the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A). Some is converted by the enzyme CYP2D6 into bufotenine, an active metabolite that binds 5-HT2A more strongly than 5-MeO-DMT does (Reckweg et al., 2022). Evidence: established.

Researchers suspect the 5-HT1A tilt helps explain why its effects differ from DMT’s. An observational study in ceremonial settings links its comparatively sparse visual imagery to its unusually high 5-HT1A activity, as a hypothesis (Timmermann et al., 2025). That has not been shown directly in people. Evidence: preliminary.

What effects do studies report from 5-MeO-DMT?

The core finding is ego dissolution. A 2022 review describes 5-MeO-DMT’s typical effect as a sense of oneness with the universe, or of relaxed boundaries between self and world, “in the absence of visual imagery” (Reckweg et al., 2022). Another review lists the relative lack of visual effects among its distinguishing features (Ermakova et al., 2022). Evidence: preliminary, mostly from surveys.

The picture is not uniform. A 2025 study collected detailed interviews, questionnaires and EEG recordings at ceremonies. It found the experience moved through stages, with visual imagery and disruption of bodily and narrative self occurring variably. Only in the most extreme cases did people report a complete absence of self-experience. The EEG showed reduced alpha and beta power (Timmermann et al., 2025). Nobody controlled the substance or amount in that setting. Evidence: preliminary.

It is short. In the largest controlled trial, the median duration of psychoactive effect for each administration ranged from 9 to 14 minutes (Cubała et al., 2026). For how this compares with DMT, see how long does DMT last. Evidence: established for that trial.

Reports of lasting change come mostly from self-selected surveys. One survey summarised in the 2022 narrative review asked 362 people who had used 5-MeO-DMT in a group setting about depression and anxiety. Among those who said they had been diagnosed, 80% reported improved depression and 79% improved anxiety, while 3% and 2% reported worsening (Ermakova et al., 2022). Surveys like this cannot show cause, and people who had bad outcomes may not respond. Evidence: preliminary.

What risks have been reported?

In clinical trials, harms have been short-lived so far. A 2024 systematic review found three early-phase trials with 78 participants in total, no serious adverse events and no dropouts. It called for larger randomized, placebo-controlled trials with longer follow-up to look for chronic effects (Kwaśny et al., 2024). Evidence: preliminary.

Outside trials, reviews list anxiety, confusion, paranoia, loss of body perception and “reactivations”: brief sensory echoes, such as flashes of light, in the following one to two weeks. Rare cases of psychosis have been reported (Reckweg et al., 2022). Evidence: preliminary.

Population data suggest the experience is often hard. A 2026 nationally representative US survey asked about 13 adverse effects that people attributed to a substance. Among 72 people who reported 5-MeO-DMT use in the past three months, 92.8% endorsed at least one, compared with 75.6% for psilocybin and 83.6% for LSD. The authors note that the 5-MeO-DMT sample was small and that its “overwhelming phenomenology” may lead people to blame it for unrelated symptoms (Simonsson et al., 2026). Evidence: preliminary.

How did 5-MeO-DMT research develop?

It began as a laboratory chemical. The 2022 narrative review says 5-MeO-DMT was first synthesised in 1936 and isolated from a plant in 1959 (Ermakova et al., 2022). Erspamer and colleagues reported it in the skin of Bufo alvarius in 1965 and 1967 (Villa, 2023; Erspamer et al., 1967). Evidence: established.

Popular interest came later and through print. Reviews trace the toad’s use to a 1984 booklet and find no conclusive evidence of Indigenous use of these toads for psychoactive purposes before it (Ermakova et al., 2022). A 2023 paper argues that for-profit wellness and adventurism have since spread mistaken stories of ancient Indigenous use (Villa, 2023). The United States placed 5-MeO-DMT in Schedule I in 2009 (Ermakova et al., 2022). Evidence: established.

What clinical trials of 5-MeO-DMT exist?

The furthest-developed program is GH001, a synthetic inhaled formulation from GH Research. ClinicalTrials.gov lists eight GH001 studies. Trials in bipolar II disorder and postpartum depression were terminated, and none lists a site in Canada (ClinicalTrials.gov, GH001). Evidence: established for the registry entries.

A broader registry search for “5-MeO-DMT” returned 21 records on 24 October 2026. Not all of them test it as the study drug. Recruiting entries included a healthy-volunteer study of intravenous 5-MeO-DMT at University Hospital Basel and an open-label depression study of Beckley Psytech’s BPL-003. No record lists a Canadian site (ClinicalTrials.gov, 5-MeO-DMT search). Evidence: established for the registry on that date.

The first published GH001 trial was small and uncontrolled. In a phase 1/2 study of 16 adults with treatment-resistant depression in the Netherlands, 7 of 8 people in the individualized-regimen group were in remission at day 7 (Reckweg et al., 2023). With no comparison group, that result cannot separate the drug from expectation. Evidence: preliminary.

The phase 2b trial is the strongest evidence so far. It randomized 81 adults with treatment-resistant depression at 16 sites in Europe. At day 8, 23 of 40 on GH001 (57.5%) were in remission, compared with 0 of 41 on placebo. Adverse events affected 72.5% of the GH001 group and 7.3% of the placebo group, most often nausea, and none were severe or serious in the placebo-controlled week (Cubała et al., 2026). Evidence: preliminary, from one trial.

Its limits matter. The drug’s effects are obvious, which can reveal who got it (functional unblinding); the trial used remote, blinded raters to reduce this. The blinded period lasted one week. In the six-month open-label phase, 20 of the 23 people who had remitted were still in remission, but most had received further treatments (Cubała et al., 2026). GH001 is not an approved medicine anywhere we checked. For the wider field, see DMT therapy research. Evidence: preliminary.

Why does the Sonoran Desert toad raise ethical concerns?

Demand has put pressure on one species. The 2025 field study reports that growing demand for the toad’s secretion has resulted in “widespread illegal toad poaching”, and it published its site locations only approximately “due to conservation concerns” (Luccioni et al., 2025). Evidence: established for the authors’ statements; the scale of poaching is unmeasured.

The official status is out of date. A 2022 review notes that the toad is not listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, but that this rests on an assessment from 2004. Its authors argue that demand could harm the species through habitat invasion, excessive handling and trafficking, and that research should use synthetic 5-MeO-DMT instead of the secretion, which is also a variable mixture (Reckweg et al., 2022). Evidence: preliminary; this is the authors’ argument.

There is also a cultural question. The 2023 paper on the toad’s biocultural history says few conservation-focused studies exist, most funded by crowdfunding, and warns against narratives that appropriate Indigenous motifs (Villa, 2023). The clinical trials above use synthetic formulations (Cubała et al., 2026). Evidence: established for what the sources say.

Is 5-MeO-DMT legal in Canada?

It is not named in Canada’s drug schedules. We read the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act on 24 October 2026, in the consolidation current to 30 September 2026. Schedule III lists N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) “and any salt thereof” as item 7, but neither 5-MeO-DMT nor any of its chemical names appears anywhere in the Act (Justice Laws, CDSA). Evidence: established for what the text says.

The newer Controlled Substances Regulations, in force since 1 October 2026, list DMT and its salts as a restricted drug in Schedule 4. We searched them for 5-MeO-DMT and its chemical names and found no listing (Justice Laws, SOR/2025-242). Evidence: established.

Health Canada names it directly. Its drug-surveillance site uses 5-MeO-DMT as its example of a “new psychoactive substance”: one not currently controlled under the CDSA, whose sale is regulated under the Food and Drugs Act (Health Canada, Health Infobase; page modified 19 March 2026). A 2022 review also lists Canada among countries where it is not controlled (Ermakova et al., 2022). Evidence: established.

“Not scheduled” is not the same as approved, tested or safe, and the Food and Drugs Act still governs its sale (Health Canada, Health Infobase). The Health Canada page predates the October 2026 regulations, so check the official texts for later changes. For DMT itself, see is DMT legal in Canada. This is general information, not legal advice.

What we still don’t know

• Whether 5-MeO-DMT’s 5-HT1A activity explains its sparse visual effects in people, or only in binding and animal studies.
• Whether GH001’s results hold in larger and longer trials, with blinding measured, and in patients with more severe illness.
• How common serious harms are outside trials; many drug databases do not test for 5-MeO-DMT.
• How the Sonoran Desert toad makes 5-MeO-DMT, and how its populations are faring since the 2004 assessment.
• Whether the human body produces 5-MeO-DMT at all.

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