WHAT ARE RESEARCH CHEMICALS?

"The study of chemistry" (RC) is a term applicable to a wide range of drugs that are indirectly sold for use in scientific and medical research. Despite the obvious analogy labeled compounds, chemicals for research share a grey area legal under U.S. law. Since the trade in chemicals for legitimate purposes (ie not for human consumption), possession and distribution is not necessarily inconsistent with similar laws.

Research chemicals have not undergone clinical trials and are not approved as safe for human consumption. The safety profile for use in the short and long term are not well established in most cases. A number of drugs with no psychoactive effects, including anabolic steroids and synthetic derivatives of the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil, have also been marketed as research chemicals by the same legal reasons.

SO, WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN?

The term "chemical research first emerged in 1990, a series of online sellers looking to sell a wide range of psychoactive chemicals (many of which were similar to scheduled chemicals) for legitimate research purposes. Reports are believed that vendors thought that this strategy marketing could avoid prosecution by the Federal Analog Act to amend the U.S. Controlled Substances Act (valid for 1986). Under this law, any chemical that is functionally and structurally "substantially similar" Schedule I or II controlled substance may also deal with the calendar, but only if the prosecution can prove intent for human consumption.

The term "research chemicals" differs from the older term "designer drugs". Chemical Research can be clearly identified as analogues of chemicals, but remains in a legal grey area (at least under the law of the United States) because of difficulties in proving intent to consume. Synthetic drugs on the other hand, were chemicals that were synthesized in order to circumvent more specifically the scheduling laws.

HOW DID IT ALL COME ABOUT?

MDMA was patented in 1913 (patent # 274,350) by the German chemical company Merck, supposedly to be sold as a diet pill (the patent does not mention a particular purpose), the company decided not to market the drug and had nothing to do with it. The U.S. Army experimented with MDMA in 1953, perhaps as a truth serum. They did not reveal whether this was the use. The man responsible for modern research of MDMA is Alexander Shulgin, who after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a Ph.D. in biochemistry began a career as a research chemist with Dow Chemicals. Among his many achievements for Dow Chemicals, was one profitable insecticide and several controversial patents which would become a popular street drug. Dow was satisfied with the insecticide, but Shulgin's other projects created a break with the way between the biochemist and the chemical company. Alexander Shulgin is also the first report of human to use MDMA.

Shulgin continued his legal research of new compounds after leaving Dow, and began specializing in the phenethylamines family of drugs. MDMA is one of 179 psychoactive substances which he described in detail, but one he felt came closest to achieving his ambition of finding the perfect drug therapy.

Because MDMA was already patented in 1913, it has no potential profit for a pharmaceutical company. A substance can not be patented twice and before marketing a new drug, a company must demonstrate that the potential effects are justified in the Pharmaceutical Benefits as a medicine, which involves a lengthy and costly trial. The only way to cover these costs is to obtain exclusive rights to sell the product through its patent. Only a few experimental therapists have examined and tested the substance (from 1977 to 1985) for use during psychotherapy sessions.

MDMA/Ecstasy received media attention in 1985, when a group of people sued the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to try to prevent the drug being prohibited and placed in Schedule 1. The U.S. Congress passed a new law allowing the DEA to put an emergency ban through drugs he thought would be a danger to the public. On July 1 1985, this right had been used for the first time to place a ban on MDMA.

A hearing was held to decide on the permanent measures that would taken against the drug. One side argued that MDMA caused brain damage in rats, while the other side argued that this may not be true for humans and that there was evidence of the beneficial use of MDMA in psychotherapy. The resident judge after weighing the evidence, recommended that MDMA be placed in Schedule 3, which allowed it to be be manufactured, prescribed only and thoroughly researched. However, DEA decided to move MDMA permanently to Schedule 1.

Research on the effects of MDMA in humans resumed in 1993, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This was the first psychoactive drug approved for testing by the above authorities.

WHAT ABOUT RESEARCH CHEMICALS IN THE MODERN WORLD?

LATE 1990's-2004

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, there was a huge explosion in designer drugs for sale on Internet. During this period the term "research chemicals" was invented by some distributors of synthetic drugs (psychedelic drugs- part of the phenethylamine and tryptamine family). The idea was that by selling the chemicals for "scientific research" rather than human consumption, the intent clause found in U.S. law from analogue drugs could be avoided. However, the DEA raided several vendors, JLF Primary Materials being first, and several suppliers (such as RAC Research) a few years later in Operation Web Tryp. This process was greatly accelerated when sellers started advertising through search engines like Google by linking their research sites on keywords such as chemical names and terms such as "psychedelic." Widespread debate for consumption and sources of chemicals in public forums also attracted the attention of the media and authorities. In 2004, an operation called Web Tryp raided and shut down several internet based suppliers. With the help of the authorities of India and China, two chemical manufacturers were also closed. Many other suppliers lept into action quickly and stopped doing business, even if their products were still legal in many parts of the world.

Most drugs sold as "research chemicals" during this period are hallucinogens and bear a chemical similarity to known drugs like psilocybin and mescaline. As with other hallucinogens, these substances are often taken to facilitate the spiritual process, mental reflection or leisure. Some of the research chemicals on the market were not psychoactive, but can be used as precursors in the synthesis of other potentially psychoactive substances. For example, 2C-H, which is used to create 2C-B and 2C-I among others. Extensive studies of structural changes have been carried out by pharmaceutical companies, universities and independent researchers over the last century, from which some of the chemicals currently available on the market exist.

Most chemical suppliers were selling research chemicals in bulk powder form, not in pill form, as the sale of tablets would have invalidated the claims that substances had been sold for research and non-consumption. Active doses vary widely with each substance of sub-microgram levels to hundreds of milligrams and is essential for the end user to measure the dose with a precision scale instead of guessing ("eyeballing"). Many users failed to do this which led to numerous visits to the emergency room and several deaths. This was a major factor leading to emergency scheduling of substances and then Operation Web Tryp. Some compounds, such as 2C-B and 5-MeO-DIPT finally grew in popularity to the point that they were sold in pill form to reach a wider market, and became popular street names ("Nexus" and "Foxy", respectively).

When a chemical when this kind of popularity, it is usually just a matter of time before it is added to the list of planned expenditures (ie illegal) substances.

In late the 1990's and early 2000's, the industry saw the first extensive use of anabolic steroids for athletes. Steroids have been banned by the International Olympic Committee since 1976, but due to the large number of different anabolic agents for humans and animals, the ability of laboratories to test all available drugs has always been behind the athletes ability to discover new compounds available. The introduction of formal testing methods, in particular through the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999, made it much more difficult for athletes using these drugs to perform without detection, which then led to the synthesis of new and more powerful drugs such as anabolic steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), which were not detectable through standard tests.

2005-2010

While traditionally most designer drugs were either opioids, hallucinogens and anabolic steroids, all made possible compounds were limited by the scientific and patent literature. In recent years this has been characterized by a diversity of compounds sold as designer drugs. These have included a wide range of stimulants such as geranamine, mephedrone, desoxypipradrol MDPV and several sedative drugs, such as methylmethaqualone premazepam and designer analogues of sildenafil (Viagra), which has been reported as active compounds in supposedly "herbal" aphrodisiac products. Cannabinoids are another recent development which have two compounds in JWH-018 and (C8), CP 47,497 initially found in December 2008. These were active components sold on the market as 'herbal smoking blends', which were legal alternatives to marijuana. Since then synthetic cannabinoid agonists have continued to appear on the market.

With the saturation of the market on a variety of opioids and hallucinogens already available, the appearance of new compounds in this area have been hampered albeit with some exceptions, such as the popularisation and wide-spread internet sale of the opioid bearing plant Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) and its extracted active component 7-hydroxymitragynine, as well as the the continuous trickle of new hallucinogens and dissociatives NBOMe 2C-C-and 3-MeO-PCP. Another novel development is the use of research ligands for cosmetic rather than exclusively for recreational purposes, such as the grey market sales on the Internet of non-approved alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone tanning drugs which are known as melanotan peptides.

WHAT ARE PSYCHOACTIVE CHEMICALS?

Psychoactive substances are chemicals that affect brain function, causing changes in behavior, mood and consciousness. Although these medications can be used therapeutically to address physical and psychological disorders, they are also used recreationally or to alter mood, perception and consciousness.

DEPRESSANTS 

Drugs that inhibit the function of the central nervous system are known as Depressants and are among the drugs most widely used worldwide. Drugs that are classified as depressants include alcohol, barbiturates and benzodiazepines.

STIMULANTS

Stimulants are a class of psychotropic drugs, which tend to increase activity in the brain. These drugs can temporarily increase alertness, mood and consciousness. While some incentives are legal and widely used, each one can be addictive. Drugs classified as stimulants include caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines and some prescription drugs.

PSYCHEDELICS

Hallucinogenic or psychedelic drugs are known as psychoactive. These drugs affect thinking, mood changes and distort the images. Drugs which are classified as psychedelics are marijuana, LSD, psilocybin (a type of fungus) and mescaline (found in peyote cactus).