DAMGO - why is this potential Holy Grail lacking discussion?
Tolerance, it is the bane of chronic pain sufferers and recreational users alike.
We all know opioids cause tolerance, and that tolerance leads to higher dosages and those higher dosages lead to harder opioids in a nearly endless cycle that typically results in:
- lack of desired effects antinociception, euphoria, both
- chasing the dragon for decades
- endless cycles of tolerance breaks and withdrawals
- overdose
But what if it didn't have to be this way? What if there were opioids that didn't result in crazy tolerance increases?
I have made multiple edits to this post with nre information from commenters and I added some Reddit links as well. It seems like a decade ago some people were using DAMGO and possibly DADLE to get high, but there is no mention of how it affected tolerance.
#DAMGO Enters the Chat#
DAMGO is the reference standard by which other drugs are measured for μ-agonism. It also shows promise in reducing opioid tolerance in rats. From Wikipedia DAMGOentry:
> DAMGO is a synthetic opioid peptide with high μ-opioid receptor specificity. It was synthesized as a biologically stable analog of δ-opioid receptor-preferring endogenous opioids, leu- and met-enkephalin. Structures of DAMGO bound to the μ opioid receptor reveal a very similar binding pose to morphinans.
> DAMGO has been used in experimental settings for the possibility of alleviating or reducing opiate tolerance for patients under the treatment of an opioid. Such treatment on rats, adding DAMGO to morphine administration, showed that after seven days morphine had as much of an effect at the same dosage as the first day when administered together with DAMGO to the rats, whereas a separate control group of rats that were administered the same dosage of morphine over the course of the same week, but without DAMGO, displayed an increased tolerance and lessened analgesic efficacy toward the end of that week.
There are even a couple references to DAMGO on Reddit that suggest it would work as mentioned above. Unfortunately every single person I have seen reference DAMGO has a long-silent account as of 2026. ^(are they all enjoying opioid-induced pain-free bliss or are they dead?)
EDIT 3 - A user named u/captainfentanyl who was supposedly an English researcher and heavy opioid user that hasnt been active since 2018 made three great comments which you can read in his profile because it seems the post he commented in was deleted and thus the share links to comments wont work. Just look at the profile of u/captainfentanyl and his nearly last comments are about DAMGO. I learned the following:
- He claims to have used DAMGO a lot
- It is an easily synthesized peptide
- IV use is a waste because little reaches the brain
- It is best "encapsulated" in higher doses
- It sounds to me like that encapsulation was what we often refer to in 2026 as liposomal encapsulation
- DAMGO recycles the receptors exactly like the natural enkaphalins
- If he could, u/captainfentanyl would have a catheter implanted and use DAMGO all day
- It mimics the body's natural enkaphalins so it is undetectable in drug testing
- DADLE is also a solid choice for getting high off these opiod peptides
- All opiod peptides end in the same protein sequence
- He preferred the pure mu agonism of DAMGO and DADLE to the very large number of fentnyls and opiates he used for recreation
- He was a connoisseur of opiods and he seems legit to this layperson
What I didn't learn is:
- Dosages (mg? Picograms?)
- How to "easily" synthesize DAMGO
- How to encapsulated it properly
- How the captain learned all this
- How the captain acquired his DAMGO (I guess he paid huge prices for research grade chems or he synthesized it himself somehow, he alludes to both I suppose)
DAMGO is mentioned in this 2022 r/DrugNerds discussion titled upgregulation of mu and deltaopiod receptor and it is the only active reference I can find of a human with the handle u/soufside_groovin who claimed to have used it. That user is long silent on Reddit.
> soufside_groovin - 4y ago - "The only thing that I have found that reduces established tolerance is DAMGO peptide, which became suspiciously hard to find recently"
In this 2020 r/Opioid_RCs post damgo / dago peptide u/c_e_n_t_u_r_i appears to be responding to a Reddit account that claimed to use DAMGO, but the moderators of r/Opioid_RCs removed the comment and the account was deleted so there is no way anyone but the MODS of this sub can see what that comment contained.
Mods if you see this please look at the removed comment and see if there is ANY information about human use of DAMGO that could be shared with the community from the comment that linked comment below is responding to here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Opioid_RCs/comments/juvuw5/comment/gcjugt5/
> c_e_n_t_u_r_i •6y ago - "What is the dosing like? That is what I can't seem to find. If it's only a few milligrams or less might be worth it to buy through one of the bio science providers or have my Chinese contact custom synth 100gs for a few hundred."
In this 2017 discussion of endomorphin DAMGO is mentioned and two things I find of note are that someone believes there was a human study (which I cannot find)
> HeroinPillsLovecraft •9y ago - "No, but there's an interesting synthetic peptite DAMGO, which is a mu agonist, itself, but has been used in studies of co-administration with morphine, and then shows no tolerance increase to the morphine over a significant period of time. The human study I read was a year."
and u/TDubbs123456 claims that up the nose is the only way to use it:
> TDubbs123456 •9y ago - "i heard intranasally is the only ROA for these but your saying they don't last long? i can't even find dosage info"
Other discussions on Reddit (I have seen none on BlueLight or elsewhere) seem to center on how easy or difficult it might be to store and use DAMGO. https://www.reddit.com/r/biology/comments/1ts8qi/peptide_damgo_storage_and_use_conditions_advice/
EDIT2 - While scientific chem companies that sell to official laboratories for scientific research say -20C is necessary for DAMGO, it appears that -4C, or 25F, may be sufficient for reconstituted DAMGO. Any old refrigerator can achieve this temperature NP.
#DAMGO PROBLEMS#
- Only available from actual lab grade chemical companies which to my knowledge require a legitimate business license to purchase chemical samples from
- Very expensive (hundreds per milligram)
- Storage (transport also?) requirements needing subzero freezers. (EDIT - This is disputed by users in the link directly above)
- No Human data outside of 2 internet references of human use with no real details given regarding dosing, storage, etc
#DAMGO ADVANTAGES#
- Potentially dosed at picogram levels
- Full bore tolerance destruction
- Cheap if #1 is true
- G-protein and not b-arrestin activation would in theory make at least some part of human use "safer"
- Unlike proglumide which also reverses tolerance, there is no secondary tolerance to deal with
#Why Is There So Little Information#
I understand why Big Pharma hasn't, but I am shocked no one from r/DrugNerds or r/researchchemicals ir even r/RC_Opiods hasn't had some DAMGO whipped up and posted real world information.
Here is DAMGO in all its glory:
H-Tyr-D-Ala-Gly-N-MePhe-Gly-ol.
As someone 6 years ago alluded to, from a technical and financial standpoint, this probably wouldnt be difficult or expensive for a Chinese lab to make would it?
That is my understanding and I am really surprised more people aren't pouring time and money into figuring out how DAMGO does or does not work.
Purely academically speaking, I would fund a clinic's study to save the world's chronic pain sufferers from opiod addiction, tolerance, and suffering if I knew how and thus I assume SOMEONE out there has tried this stuff!
Please don't gatekeep people, please share what you know about DAMGO / DAGO.