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Substance Abuse during Pregnancy
Published in “Bert” Bertis Britt Little, Drugs and Pregnancy, 2022
Like amphetamines, methamphetamines are sympathomimetic agents with potent central nervous system stimulant properties. They are prescribed medically to treat ADHD, obesity, and narcolepsy. Illegal methamphetamines are known as ‘designer drugs’ because they are synthesized by novel site methylation along the carbon chain and ring in a one-step reduction process. This “design” creates molecules different from pharmaceutical forms of the drug. Methamphetamines are a popular class of recreational drug, but are occasionally used to ‘cut’ or dilute other illicit drugs (e.g., cocaine). The stimulant effects of methamphetamines keep the partygoers awake, although some varieties of this drug may cause hallucinations or other altered states of consciousness. In 2021, parties sometimes called “raves” go on for 36+ hours with the pharmacological assistance of methamphetamines.
Drug abuse in pregnancy: Marijuana, LSD, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol, and opiates
Published in Hung N. Winn, Frank A. Chervenak, Roberto Romero, Clinical Maternal-Fetal Medicine Online, 2021
Jacquelyn C. Howitt, Anita Bublik-Anderson
“Designer drugs,” synthetic analogs, and amphetamine derivatives, which share many of the effects of the parent drugs, are powerful psychostimulants with often unpredictable side effects. Illegal manufacturing of these derivative drugs may involve the inclusion of contaminants, which may pose further dangers.
Certainty? Maybe, Maybe Not: 1950 to 2000
Published in John K. Crellin, A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century, 2020
Whatever the concerns, the century ended with a continuing commitment to synthetic medicines supported by new methods (e.g., cloned genes) to discover medicines with specific effects on receptors. This gave new meaning to the term designer drugs—used in the 1990s to describe recreational drugs that initially escaped legal restrictions—-by extending the term to scientifically designed chemicals that might allow specific treatments for specific individuals.
Designer benzodiazepines: an update
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2023
Xiao Yu, H Karl Greenblatt, David J Greenblatt
New or novel psychoactive substance (NPS), also known as designer drugs, are analogues or synthetic modifications of legitimate existing and approved agents, intended to mimic the effects of potentially recreational or abusable psychotropic drugs [1,2]. Restrictions are variable from country to country, which enable designer drug production and distribution to evade regulation and enforcement internationally. The rise in NPS use raises concern because of easy availability through internet or other illicit sources, together with incompletely effective regulatory control. The public health risk of many NPS drug classes is attributed to misuse and overdosage, which in extreme cases can be lethal. Without an adequate scientific and clinical research basis, and with concerns about manufacturing process control and drug purity of NPS, full characterization of the pharmacologic profiles has been difficult [3–12].
Content versus Label Claims in Cannabidiol (CBD)-Containing Products Obtained from Commercial Outlets in the State of Mississippi
Published in Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2020
Bill J. Gurley, Timothy P. Murphy, Waseem Gul, Larry A. Walker, Mahmoud ElSohly
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this study was the frequency with which CBD vaping products were adulterated with synthetic cannabinoids. Synthetic cannabinoids are a novel class of designer drugs intended to mimic the psychoactive effects of THC in marijuana (Pintori et al. 2017). They emerged as a new drug of abuse category in 2008. Synthetic cannabinoid use/abuse can have devastating toxicological consequences ranging from agitation and psychosis to arrhythmia, seizures, and death (Davidson et al. 2017; Armenian et al. 2018; Pacher et al. 2018). Their unpredictable toxicity may vary with dose, route of administration, individual vulnerability, and concomitant intake with other drugs (Davidson et al. 2017; Pintori et al. 2017). Compounding the harmful effects of synthetic cannabinoids when delivered via electronic cigarette is lung injury associated with vaping alone (Cherian et al. 2020). Recently, CBD oil vaping has been linked to a number of serious lung injuries (Conuel et al. 2019; Heinzerling et al. 2020). Our findings, while not conclusive, suggest that adulterated CBD products designed for e-cigarette use may exacerbate vaping-associated respiratory failure (Conuel et al. 2019; Fryman et al. 2020; Heinzerling et al. 2020). The number of liquid vaping products that provided no manufacturer information was also surprising as such practices only worsen the safety concerns surrounding these products.
Activity-based reporter assays for the screening of abused substances in biological matrices
Published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2019
Annelies Cannaert, Marthe Vandeputte, Sarah M. R. Wille, Christophe P. Stove
The number of novel designer drugs that is abused is constantly growing. This increase can be seen by the sharp rise of new psychoactive substances (NPS) during the last decade. More than 670 NPS have appeared on the European drug market, as reported by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) (EMCDDA 2018). These substances are characterized by high market dynamics and are often not covered by international drug controls. NPS make up a broad range of drugs such as synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists, stimulants, opioids, and benzodiazepines and are in many cases marketed as “legal” replacements for illicit drugs (e.g. “synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists” for cannabis products) (EMCDDA 2018).