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.
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