1.
Psychoactive drug
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A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that changes brain function and results in alterations in perception, mood, or consciousness. These substances may be used recreationally, to alter ones consciousness, or, as entheogens, for ritual, spiritual, or shamanic purposes. Some categories of drugs, which have medical therapeutic value, are prescribed by medical doctors. There are also some psychoactive substances used in the detoxification and rehabilitation programs for drug users. Psychoactive substances often bring about changes in consciousness and mood that the user may find rewarding. In addition, sustained use of some substances may produce a physical dependence or psychological dependence syndrome associated with somatic or psychological-emotional withdrawal states respectively, Drug rehabilitation aims to break this cycle of dependency, through a combination of psychotherapy, support groups, maintenance and even other psychoactive substances. However, the reverse is true in some cases, that certain experiences on drugs may be so unfriendly. This is especially true of certain deliriants, powerful dissociatives, and classic psychedelics, in part because of this potential for substance misuse, addiction, or dependence, the ethics of drug use is debated. Restrictions on drug production and sales in an attempt to drug abuse are very common among national and sub-national governments worldwide. Ethical concerns have also raised about over-use of these drugs clinically. Psychoactive drug use can be traced to prehistory, there is archaeological evidence of the use of psychoactive substances dating back at least 10,000 years, and historical evidence of cultural use over the past 5,000 years. The chewing of coca leaves, for example, dates back over 8,000 years ago in Peruvian society, medicinal use is one important facet of psychoactive drug usage. However, some have postulated that the urge to alter ones consciousness is as primary as the drive to satiate thirst, hunger or sexual desire. Supporters of this belief contend that the history of use and even childrens desire for spinning, swinging. It is, however, necessary to precisely what is meant by the use of drugs. We do not mean the purely physical craving, but there are not many drugs which have the power of stilling such craving. This relationship is not limited to humans, a number of animals consume different psychoactive plants, animals, berries and even fermented fruit, becoming intoxicated, such as cats after consuming catnip. Traditional legends of sacred plants often contain references to animals that introduced humankind to their use, animals and psychoactive plants appear to have co-evolved, possibly explaining why these chemicals and their receptors exist within the nervous system
2.
Recreational drug use
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Recreational drug use is the use of a psychoactive drug to alter ones mental state in a way that modifies emotions, perceptions, and feelings for recreational purposes. When a substance enters the body, it brings on an intoxicating effect. Generally, people use drugs that fall into three categories, depressants, stimulants, and psychedelic drugs. In popular usage, it is considered to be a tolerated social behaviour rather than a serious medical condition such as self-medication. The substances classified as controlled and illegal drugs vary by country, in 2009 it was estimated that about 3% to 6% of people aged 15 to 65 had used illegal drugs at least once. International and domestic law enforcement agencies are perpetually occupied with interdiction efforts against illegal use, manufacture. Many researchers have explored the etiology of recreational drug use, there has not been agreement around any one single cause. Instead, experts tend to apply the biopsychosocial model, any number of these factors are likely to influence an individual’s drug use as they are not mutually exclusive. Regardless of genetics, mental health or traumatic experiences, social factors play a role in exposure to and availability of certain types of drugs. According to addiction researcher Martin A. Plant, many go through a period of self-redefinition before initiating recreational drug use. They tend to view using drugs as part of a lifestyle that involves belonging to a subculture that they associate with heightened status. Plant says, “From the users point of there are many positive reasons to become part of the milieu of drug taking. The reasons for drug use appear to have as much to do with needs for friendship, pleasure, becoming a drug taker, to many people, is a positive affirmation rather than a negative experience. ”Anthropological research has suggested that humansmay have evolved to counter-exploit plant neurotoxins. The ability to use chemicals to serve the function of endogenous neurotransmitters may have improved survival rates. A typically restrictive prehistoric diet may have emphasised the apparent benefit of consuming psychoactive drugs, severity and type of risks that come with recreational drug use vary widely with the drug in question and the amount being used. There are many factors in the environment and within the user interact with each drug differently. Overall, some studies suggest that alcohol is one of the most dangerous of all drugs, only heroin, crack cocaine. Researcher David Nutt stated that studies showing benefits for moderate alcohol consumption lacked control for the variable of what the subjects were drinking
3.
Psychedelic drug
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A psychedelic drug is a drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception, typically by agonising serotonin receptors. The psychedelic experience is often compared to forms of consciousness such as trance, meditation, yoga, religious ecstasy, dreaming. With a few exceptions, most psychedelic drugs fall into one of the three following families of compounds, tryptamines, phenethylamines, and lysergamides. Many psychedelic drugs are illegal worldwide under the UN conventions unless used in a medical or religious context, despite these regulations, recreational use of psychedelics is common. The word was coined in 1956 by British psychiatrist, Humphry Osmond, the spelling loathed by American ethnobotanist, Richard Schultes, aldous Huxley had suggested to Humphry Osmond in 1956 his own coinage phanerothyme. Recently, the term entheogenic has come into use to denote the use of drugs in a religious/spiritual/mystical context. Psychedelics have a history of traditional use in medicine and religion. In this context, they are known as entheogens. Native American practitioners using mescaline-containing cacti have reported success against alcoholism, ayahuasca, which contains the powerful psychedelic DMT, is used in Peru and other parts of South America for spiritual and physical healing as well as in religious festivals. Classical or serotonergic psychedelics include LSD, psilocin, mescaline, and this class of psychedelics includes the classical hallucinogens, including the lysergamides like LSD and LSA, tryptamines like psilocybin and DMT, and phenethylamines like mescaline and 2C-B. Many of these psychedelics cause remarkably similar effects, despite their different chemical structure, however, many users report that the three families have subjectively different qualities in the feel of the experience, which are difficult to describe. At lower doses, these include sensory alterations, such as the warping of surfaces, shape suggestibility, users often report intense colors that they have not previously experienced, and repetitive geometric shapes are common. Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental alterations of sensory perception, some compounds, such as 2C-B, have extremely tight dose curves, meaning the difference between a non-event and an overwhelming disconnection from reality can be very slight. There can be substantial differences between the drugs, however. The empathogen-entactogens are phenethylamines of the MDxx class such as MDMA, MDEA and their effects are characterized by feelings of openness, euphoria, empathy, love, heightened self-awareness, and by mild audio and visual distortions. Their adoption by the subculture is probably due to the enhancement of the overall social and musical experience. Certain dissociative drugs acting via NMDA antagonism are known to produce what some might consider psychedelic effects, the main differences between dissociative psychedelics and serotonergic hallucinogens are that the dissociatives cause more intense derealization and depersonalization. For example, ketamine produces sensations of being disconnected from ones body, salvia divinorum is a dissociative that is sometimes classified as an atypical psychedelic
4.
Heterocyclic compound
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A heterocyclic compound or ring structure is a cyclic compound that has atoms of at least two different elements as members of its ring. Heterocyclic chemistry is the branch of chemistry dealing with the synthesis, properties. Examples of heterocyclic compounds include all of the acids, the majority of drugs, most biomass. Although heterocyclic compounds may be inorganic, most contain at least one carbon, while atoms that are neither carbon nor hydrogen are normally referred to in organic chemistry as heteroatoms, this is usually in comparison to the all-carbon backbone. But this does not prevent a compound such as borazine from being labelled heterocyclic, IUPAC recommends the Hantzsch-Widman nomenclature for naming heterocyclic compounds. Heterocyclic compounds can be classified based on their electronic structure. The saturated heterocycles behave like the acyclic derivatives, thus, piperidine and tetrahydrofuran are conventional amines and ethers, with modified steric profiles. Therefore, the study of heterocyclic chemistry focuses especially on unsaturated derivatives, included are pyridine, thiophene, pyrrole, and furan. Another large class of heterocycles are fused to rings, which for pyridine, thiophene, pyrrole, and furan are quinoline, benzothiophene, indole. Fusion of two benzene rings gives rise to a large family of compounds, respectively the acridine, dibenzothiophene, carbazole. The unsaturated rings can be classified according to the participation of the heteroatom in the pi system, heterocycles with three atoms in the ring are more reactive because of ring strain. Those containing one heteroatom are, in general, stable and those with two heteroatoms are more likely to occur as reactive intermediates. Five-membered rings with one heteroatom, The 5-membered ring compounds containing two heteroatoms, at least one of which is nitrogen, are called the azoles. Thiazoles and isothiazoles contain a sulfur and an atom in the ring. A large group of 5-membered ring compounds with three heteroatoms also exists, one example is dithiazoles that contain two sulfur and a nitrogen atom. Five-member ring compounds with four heteroatoms, With 5-heteroatoms, the compound may be considered rather than heterocyclic. With 7-membered rings, the heteroatom must be able to provide an empty pi orbital for normal aromatic stabilization to be available, otherwise, for example, with the benzo-fused unsaturated nitrogen heterocycles, pyrrole provides indole or isoindole depending on the orientation. The pyridine analog is quinoline or isoquinoline, for azepine, benzazepine is the preferred name
5.
Substituted amphetamine
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The compounds in this class span a variety of pharmacological subclasses, including stimulants, empathogens, and hallucinogens, among others. Some of amphetamines substituted derivatives occur in nature, for example in the leaves of Ephedra and these have been used since antiquity for their pharmacological effects. Amphetamine was first produced at the end of the 19th century, by the 1930s, amphetamine and some of its derivative compounds found use as decongestants in the symptomatic treatment of colds and also occasionally as psychoactive agents. Their effects on the nervous system are diverse, but can be summarized by three overlapping types of activity, psychoanaleptic, hallucinogenic and empathogenic. Various substituted amphetamines may cause these actions either separately or in combination, amphetamines are a subgroup of the substituted phenethylamine class of compounds. Substitution of hydrogen results in a large class of compounds. Natives of Yemen and Ethiopia have a tradition of chewing khat leaves to achieve a stimulating effect. The active substances of khat are cathinone and, to a lesser extent, amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 by Romanian chemist Lazăr Edeleanu, although its pharmacological effects remained unknown until the 1930s. MDMA was produced in 1912 as an intermediate product, however, this synthesis also went largely unnoticed. In the 1920s, both methamphetamine and the dextrorotatory optical isomer of amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, were synthesized and this synthesis was a by-product of a search for ephedrine, a bronchodilator used to treat asthma extracted exclusively from natural sources. Over-the-counter use of substituted amphetamines was initiated in the early 1930s by the pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline & French, as a medicine for colds and nasal congestion. Subsequently, amphetamine was used in the treatment of narcolepsy, obesity, hay fever, orthostatic hypotension, epilepsy, Parkinsons disease, alcoholism, the reinforcing effects of substituted amphetamines were quickly discovered, and the misuse of substituted amphetamines had been noted as far back as 1936. During World War II, amphetamines were used by the German military to keep their tank crews awake for long periods and it was noticed that extended rest was required after such artificially induced activity. The widespread use of substituted amphetamines began in postwar Japan and quickly spread to other countries, modified designer amphetamines gained popularity since the 1960s, such as MDA and PMA. In 1970, the United States adopted the Controlled Substances Act that limited non-medical use of substituted amphetamines, street use of PMA was noted in 1972. MDMA emerged as a substitute to MDA in the early 1970s, american chemist Alexander Shulgin first synthesized the drug in 1976 and through him the drug was briefly introduced into psychotherapy. Recreational use grew and in 1985 MDMA was banned by the US authorities in an emergency scheduling initiated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, since the mid-1990s, MDMA has become a popular entactogenic drug among the youth and quite often non-MDMA substances were sold as ecstasy. Ongoing trials are investigating its efficacy as an adjunct to psychotherapy in the management of treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder
6.
Bromo-DragonFLY
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Bromo-DragonFLY is a psychedelic drug related to the phenethylamine family. Bromo-DragonFLY has a stereocenter and --bromo-DragonFLY is the active stereoisomer. Bromo-DragonFLY was first synthesized by Matthew Parker in the laboratory of David E. Nichols in 1998, as with the earlier and less potent dihydrofuran series of compounds nicknamed FLY, Bromo-DragonFLY was named after its superficial structural resemblance to a dragonfly. The hallucinogenic effect of bromo-DragonFLY is mediated by its agonist activity at the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor, the typical dose of Bromo-DragonFLY is not known, however it has varied from 500 μg to 1 mg. It has about 300 times the potency of mescaline, or 1/5 the potency of LSD and it has been sold in the form of blotters, similar to the distribution method of LSD, which has led to confusion, and reports of mistakenly consuming Bromo-DragonFly. It has a longer duration of action than LSD and can last for up to 2–3 days following a single large dose. Laboratory testing has confirmed that in October 2009, a batch of Bromo-Dragonfly was distributed, mislabeled as the related compound 2C-B-FLY and this mistake is believed to have contributed to several lethal overdoses and additional hospitalizations. The batch implicated in these deaths also contained significant synthesis impurities, vasoconstrictive action resulting from severe overdose of Bromo-DragonFLY is known to have caused tissue necrosis of the extremities in at least one case. Treatment was of limited efficacy in this case, although tolazoline is reportedly an effective treatment where available, overdose-associated disturbing experiences and health problems have been described. One case in 2008 in England involved inhalation of vomit, causing nearly fatal asphyxia, on October 3,2009, a 22-year-old male from Copenhagen died after ingesting Bromo-dragonfly. His friend described the trip saying, It was like being dragged to hell and it is the most evil Ive ever tried. On May 7,2011, in the United States, two adults died after overdosing on Bromo-DragonFLY, which they thought was 2C-E, and several others were hospitalized during the same incident. Because they took a dosage appropriate for 2C-E, those who took the drug received, in some cases, both deaths followed seizures, vomiting blood, and terrifying hallucinations. Several surviving victims are still suffering from its physical effects. Bromo-DragonFLY is listed as a Schedule I in Oklahoma, Schedule III as of Oct 122016. 2C-phenethylamines and their salts, derivatives, isomers and salts of derivatives and isomers that correspond to a definition that includes anything with a 2. This includes most 2C-s, DOx, TMA, Aleph, NBOMes, NBOHs, NBF, bk-2-C-B, 2C-B-Fly, Bromo-DragonFLY, Bromo-DragonFLY is widely reported by the media as being a class A drug. If the prosecution could demonstrate structural similarity in court, it would be considered a Class A substance and it is not explicitly named in the misuse of drugs act
