Synthetic Drugs of Abuse

Synthetic Drugs of Abuse I t seems that primitive man at times wished to escape his reality. He or she probably found some natural herbal drugs to facilitate this desire. In fact abuse of the coca leaf and the opium poppy has been occuring the last 3000 years, and probably longer. The mescaline containing peyote cactus has been abused by the indians for even longer. They thought it was a gift from god because they often realised profound truths when they where inebriate(at least, thats what they thought!). I n the 19. century the structure of mescaline was elucidated. It was also discovered that the synthesis of N-methyl mescaline, would increase the drugs potentcy, when compared to the precursor. The first acceptet semi-synthetic drug for medical use was heroine. Many semi-synthetic drugs followed. After a longer period fully synthetic drugs appeared. Among theese where : ephedrine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, phenylpropanoleamine (appetite suppresant), nitroglycerine and amylnitrite. Amphetamine, methamphetamine and amylnitrite were abused for their pleasant pharmacological response. Amphetamine and methamphetamine was used as a recreational drug, which made the user restless, euphoric and alert. Amylnitrite produced strong rushes of euphoria. The average man could not seem to control his/hers use of the drugs, and as a consequence, all of theese products where put under federal control. They cannot be obtained legally without a prescription from a doctor. People with an insight in chemistry and a lack of morale, startet to produce these compunds for their own financial gains. T he really clever chemists avoided doing anything illegal by creating pharmacologically-active compunds, which where derived from known illegal drugs. Not only where they able to produce similar compounds, but many of the new compunds where much more potent than the original drug. This created the so-called designer drug phenomenon. A very common abused drug is a resulat of this development : MDMA ; or as the ravers prefer to call it, "ecstacy". It is an amphetamine that produces euphoria, CNS stimulation and mild hallucinations. Many of the new drugs were also highly addictive. A couple of years ago cocaine freebase, better know as "crack", gained popularity. The drug gave the user a ten minutes long "high". The drug is physically addictive the first time it is used. Another even more addictive and potent drug appeared on the american market in 1994. It is called methcathinone, or "cat". The user is high for 72 hours after using only 10-20 mg. Although the user does not get physically addictet right away, the rush is so pleasant, that only very few people has reported using it only once. The largest problem with this new drug is that it can, unlike cocaine freebase, be prepared from OTC products and with very little, or even none, knowledge in chemistry. It has not been seen in Denmark yet, but will indoubtly pose a serious threat to the experimenting part of the population in only few years. T o prevent the designer drug trend to develop further, the DEA introduced a new term called CsA . Drugs with similar structure and effects as controlled substances were thereby also made illegal. At the same time the substance p2p was put under federal control. P2p was/is the main source of (meth)amphetamine precursor material. Because of this the street avability of (meth)amphetamine fell. Only months after this law modification, the streets where flooded with a new and even more potent drug : 4-methylaminorex; know as euphoria. This drug is made from non-controlled substances. T hroughout the history of synthetical drugs, amphetamine(speed) and methamphetamine(meth), have had the greatest "succes" on the street. In the last ten years the rate of which new illegal drugs are seen, have grown in ten fold. Every time the DEA has tried to prevent the production of drugs, either by putting chemicals under control, or through propaganda, it has resultet in more initiative from the clandestine chemists. For these people it is a sport til beat the system, and most of them do not have ethics concerning the health of other people. The civilized world uses enormous amounts of resources to fight the drug problem. I personally belive that drugs should be legalized. The mobs way of living would then become extinct and the worlds largest source of crime would be erased. A small sum of the money used to fight the former drug problem could then be used to inform people of the dangers concerning various substances. Perhaps more people would become addicted this way, but the gouverment would save so much money that other people could be saved, and thereby making the score even.