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Another cannibal attack.
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<blockquote data-quote="Hobbes" data-source="post: 1821671" data-attributes="member: 3371"><p><img src="https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/www.wired.com_images_blogs_wiredscience_2012_05_spicegold.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p><span style="font-size: 9px">Discarded wrapper from a packet of Spice, a popular synthetic cannabis mixture. </span></p><p></p><p>The war on drugs has a new front, and so far it appears to be a losing one.</p><p> Synthetic mimics of marijuana, dissociative drugs and stimulants such as the bath salts <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/face-eating-attack-possibly-linked-bath-salts-miami/story?id=16451452#.T8UsDL_EPW4" target="_blank">allegedly consumed by Randy Eugene</a>, the Florida man shot after a horrific face-eating assault are growing in popularity and hard to control. Every time a compound is banned, overseas chemists synthesize a new version tweaked just enough to evade a laws letter.</p><p> Its a giant game of chemical Whack-a-Mole.</p><p> Manufacturers turn these things around so quickly. One week youll have a product with compound X, the next week its compound Y, said forensic toxicologist Kevin Shanks of AIT Laboratories, an Indiana-based chemical testing company.</p><p> Its fascinating how fast it can occur, and its fascinating to see the minute changes in chemical structure theyll come up with. Its similar, but its different, Shanks continued.</p><p></p><p>During the last several years, the market for legal highs has exploded in North America and Europe. The names and ostensible purposes are almost comical Cloud 9 Mad Hatter incense, Zombie Matter Ultra potpourri, Ivory Wave bath salts and Crystal Clean pipe cleaner but the underlying chemistry is highly sophisticated. </p><p>Active ingredients in the drugs are compounds originally synthesized by institutional researchers whose esoteric scientific publications were mined by as-yet-unidentified chemists and neuroscientists working in Asia, where most of the new drugs appear to come from.</p><p> One class of popular cannabinoid mimics, for example, was developed by respected Clemson University organic chemist John Huffman, who sought to isolate marijuanas chemical properties for use in cancer research. Other legal high ingredients have similar pedigrees, with designers including researchers at Israels Hebrew University and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.</p><p> While people raised on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness" target="_blank">Reefer Madness-style exaggerations</a> may be wary of claims that legal high drugs are dangerous, researchers say theyre far more potent than the originals.</p><p> The results are toxic and very dangerous, especially for vulnerable people people with previous psychotic episodes and the young, said Liana Fattore, a chemist at Italys Institute of Neuroscience.</p><p> Fattore, whose research specialty is cannabinoids and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22561602" target="_blank">the new wave of THC mimics</a>, says the new drugs often contain unpredictable mixes of these extra-potent compounds. The same goes for <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22041906%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E" target="_blank">synthetic stimulants</a> and dissociatives.</p><p> Reports of <a href="http://is.gd/ibarF3" target="_blank">psychotic episodes following synthetic drug use</a> are common and have led to a variety of controls in U.S. cities, states and the federal government. The latest ban was <a href="http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x1898617671/US-Senate-makes-bath-salts-synthetic-marijuana-illegal" target="_blank">approved by the U.S. Senate in May</a>.</p><p></p><p>So far, however, these arent working. In a May 14 <a href="http://jat.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/05/13/jat.bks047" target="_blank"><em>Journal of Analytical Toxicology</em> study</a>, Shanks team described AITs tests of legal drugs purchased since the Drug Enforcement Agencys 2010 bans of three synthetic stimulants and five synthetic cannabinoids.</p><p> A full 95 percent of the products contained compounds not covered by the law. Theyd been subtly tweaked so as to possess a different, legal molecular form while performing the same psychopharmaceutical role.</p><p> A <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427412011113" target="_blank"><em>Toxicology Letters</em> study</a> published earlier in May described similar adjustments in derivatives of pipradol, a controlled stimulant.</p><p> If you want any evidence that drugs have won the drug war, you just need to read the scientific studies on legal highs, <a href="http://mindhacks.com/2012/05/19/legal-highs-making-the-drug-war-obselete/" target="_blank">wrote Vaughan Bell at MindHacks</a>, a neuroscience blog thats covered legal highs in depth.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/synthetic-drug-war/" target="_blank">http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/synthetic-drug-war/</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hobbes, post: 1821671, member: 3371"] [IMG]https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/www.wired.com_images_blogs_wiredscience_2012_05_spicegold.jpg[/IMG] [SIZE=1]Discarded wrapper from a packet of Spice, a popular synthetic cannabis mixture. [/SIZE] The war on drugs has a new front, and so far it appears to be a losing one. Synthetic mimics of marijuana, dissociative drugs and stimulants such as the bath salts [URL="http://abcnews.go.com/US/face-eating-attack-possibly-linked-bath-salts-miami/story?id=16451452#.T8UsDL_EPW4"]allegedly consumed by Randy Eugene[/URL], the Florida man shot after a horrific face-eating assault are growing in popularity and hard to control. Every time a compound is banned, overseas chemists synthesize a new version tweaked just enough to evade a laws letter. Its a giant game of chemical Whack-a-Mole. Manufacturers turn these things around so quickly. One week youll have a product with compound X, the next week its compound Y, said forensic toxicologist Kevin Shanks of AIT Laboratories, an Indiana-based chemical testing company. Its fascinating how fast it can occur, and its fascinating to see the minute changes in chemical structure theyll come up with. Its similar, but its different, Shanks continued. During the last several years, the market for legal highs has exploded in North America and Europe. The names and ostensible purposes are almost comical Cloud 9 Mad Hatter incense, Zombie Matter Ultra potpourri, Ivory Wave bath salts and Crystal Clean pipe cleaner but the underlying chemistry is highly sophisticated. Active ingredients in the drugs are compounds originally synthesized by institutional researchers whose esoteric scientific publications were mined by as-yet-unidentified chemists and neuroscientists working in Asia, where most of the new drugs appear to come from. One class of popular cannabinoid mimics, for example, was developed by respected Clemson University organic chemist John Huffman, who sought to isolate marijuanas chemical properties for use in cancer research. Other legal high ingredients have similar pedigrees, with designers including researchers at Israels Hebrew University and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. While people raised on [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness"]Reefer Madness-style exaggerations[/URL] may be wary of claims that legal high drugs are dangerous, researchers say theyre far more potent than the originals. The results are toxic and very dangerous, especially for vulnerable people people with previous psychotic episodes and the young, said Liana Fattore, a chemist at Italys Institute of Neuroscience. Fattore, whose research specialty is cannabinoids and [URL="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22561602"]the new wave of THC mimics[/URL], says the new drugs often contain unpredictable mixes of these extra-potent compounds. The same goes for [URL="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22041906%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E"]synthetic stimulants[/URL] and dissociatives. Reports of [URL="http://is.gd/ibarF3"]psychotic episodes following synthetic drug use[/URL] are common and have led to a variety of controls in U.S. cities, states and the federal government. The latest ban was [URL="http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x1898617671/US-Senate-makes-bath-salts-synthetic-marijuana-illegal"]approved by the U.S. Senate in May[/URL]. So far, however, these arent working. In a May 14 [URL="http://jat.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/05/13/jat.bks047"][I]Journal of Analytical Toxicology[/I] study[/URL], Shanks team described AITs tests of legal drugs purchased since the Drug Enforcement Agencys 2010 bans of three synthetic stimulants and five synthetic cannabinoids. A full 95 percent of the products contained compounds not covered by the law. Theyd been subtly tweaked so as to possess a different, legal molecular form while performing the same psychopharmaceutical role. A [URL="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427412011113"][I]Toxicology Letters[/I] study[/URL] published earlier in May described similar adjustments in derivatives of pipradol, a controlled stimulant. If you want any evidence that drugs have won the drug war, you just need to read the scientific studies on legal highs, [URL="http://mindhacks.com/2012/05/19/legal-highs-making-the-drug-war-obselete/"]wrote Vaughan Bell at MindHacks[/URL], a neuroscience blog thats covered legal highs in depth. [URL]http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/synthetic-drug-war/[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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