Synthetic amphetamines are not regarded as hallucinogenic, though hallucinations are experienced by some users. Hallucinogenic agents such as salvia divinorum are also included, the latter sometimes described as herbal ecstasy. Legal highs generally comprise cathinone stimulants and synthetic cannabinoids. Cathinone is chemically similar to ephedrine, cathine, methcathinone and other amphetamines. MDMA was first synthesised in 1912, methcathinone in 1928, and mephedrone in 1929. For example, cathinone derivatives have been reported since the late 1920s. The terminology is confusing because although the description ‘designer drug’ seems to imply the creation of new drugs, many are not new. MDMA and fentanyl compounds were the most popular synthetic drugs initially. Fentanyl is an extremely potent analgesic, some 100 times more potent than morphine. The term ‘designer drug’, coined in the 1980s, generally referred to various synthetic opioids based mostly on the fentanyl molecule (α-methylfentanyl) and MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) commonly known as ecstasy. Keywords: legal highs, bath salts, designer drugs The reader should also bear in mind that it is beyond the scope of this article to include many other agents. The term ‘research’ only infers that very little is known about these substances and information on adverse effects is often sparse. Their main purpose is to induce psychoactive effects that mimic amphetamines, cannabinoids or psychedelic drugs.

Furthermore, the chemical structure is continually changing in order to avoid legislation and therefore users can never be sure what they are taking.įor the purpose of this article readers should use the terms legal highs, designer drugs, bath salts, herbal highs, ‘research’ chemicals, and novel psychoactive substances, interchangeably. Because they vary in composition from batch to batch they are potentially dangerous for users. Based on chemical formulae for opioids, mescaline, and cannabis, they are created in laboratories under lax conditions for no defined medical purposes. Francis J Dunne, Khalid Jaffar and Shazia HashmiĬite this article as: BJMP 2015 8(1):a801ĭesigner or synthetic drugs which include legal highs and other “club drugs” are substances which have a propensity to cause euphoria, central nervous system stimulation, and hallucinations.

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