Putting Designer Drugs Back in Pandora's Box: Analytical Challenges and Metabolite Identification

Abstract

History is full of stories of scientific discoveries being used in unexpected ways. Just think about how the technology of microwaves, developed to be used in radar technology, revolutionized the lunch break, or how the antiarrhythmic drug Viagra improved the potency of middle-aged men. The story of designer drugs is similar, although with another outcome. Many claim it started in the 1980s with work to develop agonists of the CB1 and CB2 receptors for patients with chronic pain; these receptors are activated by tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),3 the active ingredient in marijuana. The 20 years leading to 2008 resulted in many pain-relieving compounds that had been evaluated and discarded. However, some of these compounds started to reappear among recreational drug users, as first observed by the group of professor Volker Auwarter in Germany (1). This group of compounds, known as spice or synthetic cannabinoids, marked the emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPSs). NPSs, also known as designer or Internet drugs, include several groups of drugs including the synthetic cannabinoids mentioned above, designer benzodiazepines, synthetic cathinones, and the N -2-methoxy-benzyl (NBOme) drugs. They have all been designed and manufactured by humans, some most likely replicated from the scientific literature (2), and others from small modifications of other illicit or prescription drugs. There has been an explosion of new NPSs. In 2014 alone, 101 novel NPSs were reported by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drugs of Abuse (3 …