This article covers research chemicals in the sense of legal or quasi-legal psychoactive drugs. The term could also be reasonably used to refer to any chemical used for research purposes.

Research chemical is a term to used euphemistically to describe psychoactive drugs. The term is typically used by the suppliers of substances which, although not prohibited by any law, are likely to attract the attention of law-enforcement agencies, who will attempt to prevent their sale and punish the supplier. The use of a descriptive term that cannot be connoted as encouraging human consumption is apparently intended to minimise the legal risk to the supplier.

Many substances sold as "research chemicals" are hallucinogens and bear a chemical resemblance to common illegal drugs such as psilocybin and mescaline. As with other hallucinogens, these substances are often taken for the purposes of facilitating spiritual processes (see entheogen), mental reflection (see psychedelic) or recreation. Some research chemicals on the market are not psychoactive, but can be used as precursors in the synthesis of other potentially psychoactive substances. Both classes of research chemical present difficulties for legislators, owing to the very large variety of possible structural modifications that can be made to a scheduled psychoactive substance to produce new psychoactives that are yet to be scheduled. Extensive surveys of structural variations have been conducted by pharmaceutical corporations, universities and independent researchers over the last century, from which some of the presently available research chemicals derive. One researcher of particular fame or notoriety (depending on your viewpoint) is Dr. Alexander Shulgin, who presented syntheses and phamarmacological explorations of hundreds of substances in the books TiHKAL and PiHKAL (co-authored with Ann Shulgin), and has served as an expert witness for the defense in several court cases against manufacturers of psychoactive drugs.

Most chemical suppliers sell research chemicals in bulk form as powder, not as pills. Active dosages are often in the low milligram range, and thus it is critical for the end user to weigh doses with a precision scale, instead of guessing ("eyeballing"). When a chemical increases in popularity, it will often be sold in pill form to reach a wider market. Some of the most popular chemicals are also given street names (like "Foxy" or "Foxy Methoxy" for 5-Meo-DiPT). Once a chemical reaches this kind of popularity, it is usually just a matter of time before it is added to the list of scheduled (prohibited) drugs.

Safety and law

Little if any research has been done on the toxicology or pharmacology of most of these drugs. Few, if any, human or animal studies have been done. Unlike better known drugs like marijuana, which has been used by billions of people worldwide, research chemicals are new and may only have been used by a few dozen people for a few months. The safety of research chemicals is untested and due to the recent development of many of them, laws banning or restricting their use have not been developed yet. However, many of the chemicals fall under the various drug analouge legislations in different countries.

In 2004, the US Drug Enforcement Administration raided and shut down several internet based research chemical vendors in an operation called Web Tryp. With help from the authorities in India and China, two chemical manufacturers were also closed. Many other internet based vendors promptly stopped doing business, even though their products are still not explicitly illegal.

Common research chemicals

Most research chemicals are structural analogues of tryptamines or phenethylamines, but there are also completely unrelated chemicals which are normally considered to be part of the group. It is impossible to determine psychoactivity or other pharmaceutical properties of these chemicals strictly from examining their structure, and many of the substances have common effects whilst structurally different and vice versa. Confusing nomenclature, similar names, and differing naming schemes can all lead to (and is anecdotally known to have led to) potentially hazardous mixups for end users.

• Some common tryptamine-based research chemicals:
  • 4-Acetoxy-DiPT, n,n-diisopropyl-4-acetoxytryptamine
  • 4-HO-DiPT, 4-hydroxy-n,n-diisopropyltryptamine
  • 5-MeO-AMT, 5-methoxy-a-methyltryptamine
  • 5-MeO-DET, 5-methoxy-n,n-diethyltryptamine
  • 5-Meo-DIPT, 5-methoxy-di-isopropyl-tryptamine (also known as "Foxy" or "Foxy Methoxy")
  • 5-MeO-MIPT, isopropy-n-methyl-5-methoxyltryptamine
  • AMT, alpha-methyltryptamine
  • DIPT, di-isopropyl-tryptamine
  • DPT, n,n-dipropyltryptamine
• Some common phenethylamine-based research chemicals:
  • 2C-B, 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (also known as "bromo-mescaline")
  • 2C-C, 2,5-dimethyoxy-4-chlorophenethylamine
  • 2C-I, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine
  • 2C-E, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethyl-phenethylamine
  • 2C-H, 2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine
  • 2C-T-2, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine
  • 2C-T-4, 2,5-dimethoxy-4(i)-propylthiophenethylamine
  • 2C-T-7, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propylthiophenethylamine
  • 2C-T-21, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-(2-fluoroethylthio)phenethylamine

See Also

• Erowid
• JLF (famous research chemical supply company)

External links

• Research Chemical FAQ on Erowid (http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/research_chems/research_chems.shtml)