A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. Designer drugs include psychoactive substances that have been designated by the European Union as new psychoactive substances (NPS) as well as analogs of performance-enhancing drugs such as designer steroids. Some of these were originally synthesized by academic or industrial researchers in an effort to discover more potent derivatives with fewer side effects and shorter duration and were later co-opted for recreational use. Other designer drugs were prepared for the first time in clandestine laboratories. Because the efficacy and safety of these substances have not been thoroughly evaluated in animal and human trials, the use of some of these drugs may result in unexpected side effects.
Benzylpiperazine (BZP) is a substance often used as a recreational drug and is known to have euphoriant and stimulant properties. Several studies conducted between 2000 and 2011 found that the effects of BZP are similar to amphetamine, although BZP's dosage is roughly 10 times higher by weight.
3-Trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) is a recreational drug of the phenylpiperazine chemical class and is a substituted piperazine. Usually in combination with benzylpiperazine (BZP) and other analogues, it is sold as an alternative to the illicit drug MDMA ("Ecstasy").
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 is a New Zealand drug control law that classifies drugs into three classes, or schedules, purportedly based on their projected risk of serious harm. However, in reality, classification of drugs outside of passing laws, where the restriction has no legal power, is performed by the governor-general in conjunction with the Minister of Health, neither of whom is actually bound by law to obey this restriction.
Methylone, also known as 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone (MDMC), is an empathogen and stimulant psychoactive drug. It is a member of the amphetamine, cathinone and methylenedioxyphenethylamine classes.
Party pills, also known as "herbal highs", "pep pills" "dance pills" and "natural power", is a colloquialism for a type of recreational drug whose main ingredient was originally benzylpiperazine (BZP), but has expanded to a wide range of compounds with a variety of effects. BZP is banned in several countries, including the USA, Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, but is available on a more or less restricted basis in many jurisdictions. A range of other piperazine derivatives have also been sold as ingredients in party pills, and many of these branded "proprietary blends" have subsequently been sold in countries around the world.
Lacing or cutting, in drug culture, refer to the act of using a substance to adulterate substances independent of the reason. The resulting substance is laced or cut.
para-Methoxyphenylpiperazine is a piperazine derivative with stimulant effects which has been sold as an ingredient in "Party pills", initially in New Zealand and subsequently in other countries around the world.
Synthetic cannabinoids are a class of designer drug molecules that bind to the same receptors to which cannabinoids in cannabis plants attach. These novel psychoactive substances should not be confused with synthetic phytocannabinoids or synthetic endocannabinoids from which they are in many aspects distinct.
MDA-19 (also known as BZO-HEXOXIZID) is a drug that acts as a potent and selective agonist for the cannabinoid receptor CB2, with reasonable selectivity over the psychoactive CB1 receptor, though with some variation between species. In animal studies it was effective for the treatment of neuropathic pain, but did not effect rat locomotor activity in that specific study. The pharmacology of MDA-19 in rat cannabinoid receptors have been demonstrated to function differently than human cannabinoid receptors with MDA-19 binding to human CB1 receptors 6.9× higher than rat CB1 receptors.
UR-144 (TMCP-018, KM-X1, MN-001, YX-17) is a drug invented by Abbott Laboratories, that acts as a selective full agonist of the peripheral cannabinoid receptor CB2, but with much lower affinity for the psychoactive CB1 receptor.
A temporary class drug is a relatively new status for controlled drugs, which has been adopted in some jurisdictions, notably New Zealand and the United Kingdom, to attempt to bring newly synthesised designer drugs under legal control. The controlled drug legislation in these jurisdictions requires drug scheduling decisions to follow an evidence-based process, where the harms of the drug are assessed and reviewed so that an appropriate legal status can be assigned. Since many designer drugs sold in recent years have had little or no published research that could help inform such a decision, they have been widely sold as "legal highs", often for months, before sufficient evidence accumulates to justify placing them on the controlled drug schedules.
APICA is an indole based drug that acts as a potent agonist for the cannabinoid receptors.
PB-22 is a designer drug offered by online vendors as a cannabimimetic agent, and detected being sold in synthetic cannabis products in Japan in 2013. PB-22 represents a structurally unique synthetic cannabinoid chemotype, since it contains an ester linker at the indole 3-position, rather than the precedented ketone of JWH-018 and its analogs, or the amide of APICA and its analogs.
5F-PB-22 is a designer drug which acts as a cannabinoid agonist. The structure of 5F-PB-22 appears to have been designed with an understanding of structure–activity relationships within the indole class of cannabinoids.
CUMYL-PICA (SGT-56) is an indole-3-carboxamide based synthetic cannabinoid. It is the α,α-dimethylbenzyl analogue of SDB-006. It was briefly sold in New Zealand during 2013 as an ingredient of at the time legal synthetic cannabis products, but the product containing CUMYL-BICA and CUMYL-PICA was denied an interim licensing approval under the Psychoactive Substances regulatory scheme, due to reports of adverse events in consumers. CUMYL-PICA acts as an agonist for the cannabinoid receptors, with Ki values of 59.21 nM at CB1 and 136.38 nM at CB2 and EC50 values of 11.98 nM at CB1 and 16.2 nM at CB2.
5F-CUMYL-PINACA (also known as SGT-25 and sometimes sold in e-cigarette form as C-Liquid) is an indazole-3-carboxamide based synthetic cannabinoid. 5F-CUMYL-PINACA acts as a potent agonist for the cannabinoid receptors, with the original patent claiming approximately 4x selectivity for CB1, having an EC50 of <0.1 nM for human CB1 receptors and 0.37 nM for human CB2 receptors. In more recent assays using different techniques, 5F-CUMYL-PINACA was variously found to have an EC50 of 0.43 nM at CB1 and 11.3 nM at CB2, suggesting a somewhat higher CB1 selectivity of 26 times, or alternatively 15.1 nM at CB1 and 34.8 nM at CB2 with only 2.3 times selectivity, however these figures cannot be directly compared due to the different assay techniques used in each case.
MDMB-CHMINACA (also known as MDMB(N)-CHM) is an indazole-based synthetic cannabinoid that acts as a potent agonist of the CB1 receptor, and has been sold online as a designer drug. It was invented by Pfizer in 2008, and is one of the most potent cannabinoid agonists known, with a binding affinity of 0.0944 nM at CB1, and an EC50 of 0.330 nM. It is closely related to MDMB-FUBINACA, which caused at least 1000 hospitalizations and 40 deaths in Russia as consequence of intoxication.
CUMYL-FUBINACA (SGT-149) is an indazole-3-carboxamide based synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist, with an EC50 of 1.8nM for human CB1 receptors and 23.7nM for human CB2 receptors, giving it around 13x selectivity for CB1. It has been sold online as a designer drug.
Synthetic drugs refer to substances that are artificially modified from naturally-occurring drugs and are capable of exhibiting both therapeutic and psychoactive effects.
