Also known as legal high or designer drugs, Research chemicals are are chemical substances used by scientists for medical and scientific research purposes. One characteristic of a research chemical is that it is for laboratory research use only; a research chemical is not intended for human or veterinary use.
Despite permitting synthetic research chemicals to be sold as any other consumer product, the government consistently fails to provide meaningful information about them and instead emulates the tabloids by adopting a policy of covert quasi‐criminalisation through non‐approval. This raises questions not simply about government competence, but also the suitability of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, and indeed the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, 40 years on. It is preferable that “Generation Meph” have access to some form of evidence‐based information about what they consume rather than to none.
What Are Research Chemicals?
Research chemicals are substances which are used recreationally by people seeking to alter their moods and get high.1 Research chemicals (RC’s) are dangerous and do not have a legitimate or legal purpose for the general public. Despite the name, research chemicals are not chemicals used in scientific research. In the context of substance abuse, research chemicals are poorly understood and can be very dangerous. While MDMA is not a research chemical, some of these substances like 4 meo pv9 are associated with MDMA-like effects when ingested.
Research Chemical Laws
Research chemicals are commonly classified as synthetic drugs for legal and regulatory purposes. Synthetics are a broad grouping of drugs which include MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine, synthetic cathinones (bath salts), and synthetic cannabinoids (Spice and K2). Many agencies refer to these drugs as new psychoactive substances (NPS), as they are all manufactured in laboratory settings, and many of them have legal analogues that were developed specifically to bypass drug enforcement laws.1 Often, the packaging for these products has the warning label: o dsmt vendors Are required to have a licence to sell and also to sell to quilifies buyersm else they may face the lace for posession and criminal distrobution of a controled substance.
