Research chemicals: A History

by: Maria Scarangella

Maybe you've heard of research chemicals, designer drugs, legal highs, etc?
In the past year the collective awareness of this phenomenon has grown considerably. From what used to be totally underground- gracing only the dark dance halls or dark corners of the internet - is now in broad daylight, on Good Morning America, for all of America and your mom to see!

So what are "Research Chemicals", where did they come from, and where are they going?

Let's take a look.


Research Chemicals got their start with a man called Alexander Shulgin. Shulgin was a pharmacologist and chemist probably best known for popularizing MDMA or "ecstacy". He devoted a lot of his time and research to MDMA and its analogues - chemical relatives. He started his research and creating new drugs in the 70's but it was in the 1990's that he and his wife published two books PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story (PiHKAL stands for Phenethylamines i Have Known And Loved) and TiHKAL: The Continuation (Tryptamines i Have Known And Loved).

Phenethylamines are a group of chemical compounds named so for the structure which they have. Some of them include psychoactive drugs such as stimulants, psychedelics, opioids or entactogens. Tryptamines, the subject of the Shulgin's second book, are a slightly more interesting group of chemicals. Tryptamines, and derivatives of Tryptamine can be found much closer to home, like in Serotonin, an important neurotransmitter in our brains, or Melatonin a hormone produced by our bodies to regulate sleep. Tryptamine alkaloids found in nature have been used by humans for years to produce psychotropic effects.

It was Shulgin's research which led to the discovery of more than 200 chemicals a.k.a. possible drugs. The reason Shulgin is the spark of the research chemical movement is because there are detailed instructions for synthesizing up to 200+ of the compounds between the two books.

Shulgin's research you could say led the way, opening the doors to a new world of "chemical drugs". His drugs never had names, even the ones which became popular, and they still lack any research other than what Shulgin himself documented. Shulgin's progeny were the first favorites in terms of "new drugs". In a sense they were somewhat reliable, all related to drugs that were well known and loved.  The most famous research chemicals are the 2C* family of psychedelic Phenethylamines. These drugs, illustrated in PiKHAL, have found a home among drug enthusiasts and psychonautic explorers as they have less negative effects and are similar in affect to drugs like LSD, MDMA or a mixture of the two.

In addition to Shulgin's instructions there was also a new invention spreading it's wings... The internet. The internet largely influenced the direction of the "research chemical" phenomenon. Within the internet there were two things, a community and a marketplace, both of them private and undisturbed for a long time. Lyceaum, Erowid, and other web-based forums were places where minds could meet, share experiences and information, and learn. At the same time that people had the information they needed to create and experiment with new chemicals there was this new unregulated online marketplace. There is a piece of U.S. Legislature, Controlled Substance Analog Enforcement Act of 1986, that is confusingly worded, which attempts to make chemical analogues of schedule I & II drugs illegal. In it it states that substances may be exempt from it if they are "not for human consumption". The name "research chemicals" comes primarily from the fact that small commercial labs would create these products and sell them under the pretense of being for legitimate "laboratory research" and not for human consumption. In every other sense the name is pretty ironic since they are the drugs with the least amount of research that can be called upon.

As interest and knowledge of these chemicals grew and spread more people became involved. By the early 2000s the first reports of deaths began to emerge and interest and knowledge grew even more. In the case of Shulgin's 2C family drugs, most notably 2-C-T-7 the few deaths that there were came from overdoses.

For information regarding 2C-T-2 & 2C-T-7 see: Sulfurous Samadhi An Investigation of 2C-T-2 & 2C-T-7

So where are we now in terms of research chemicals?

It's no secret that most businesses want to sell you things that you don't need. So we now examine the blossoming business of "Legal Highs" in all its corrupt glory. Here we have a bunch of people who see the opportunity to sell people something. People want drugs, most people (especially teenagers) don't really understand how drugs work, and need only the fact that it's on the store's shelf to reassure them it's okay. Between the cool, colorful labeling, the convenience of them being right in your local head shop and the comfort of knowing it's not illegal what's stopping you from purchasing some "Legal high product"?

Your answer should be that there is no evidence that that substance is safe or even gets you "high". Sure it might "f*ck you up" but is that what you are really going for? Humans have been taking drugs for thousands of years. We are aware of most of the substances that produce desired mental and physical effects. Some chemicals alter you, some for better (high) and some for worse (f*cked). They all have names and are pretty well documented. But there are a lot of chemicals out there, a heinous amount if you think about it. Out of all the endless combinations of atoms could there perhaps be another drug out there waiting to be discovered? Maybe.


Today we are seeing a new and different kind of wave of "research chemicals". New, often more dangerous, synthetic varieties of psychoactive drugs are being produced and sold legally, including synthetic cannabinoids, psychedelics, and stimulants.

Let's start with synthetic cannabinoids, because in some way it's like blasphemy.

Have you heard of Spice or K2, Incense, etc? Do you know somebody who is smoking it because they are on probation, or maybe they just don't really want to smoke weed but they want in on the fun?

Basically all that these products are is a bunch of inert plant material sprayed with chemicals. what this means is that they take some "herbs" plants which they list on the packaging by their genus and species name to look scientific, but which really have no psychoactive effects. They then spray this plant material with a mix of chemicals - flavorings such as strawberry or pineapple - and of course whatever the "active ingredient" of the week happens to be.

The chemicals in Spice and K2 are illegal now (as of March 1st, 2011 the D.E.A. used its emergency powers to make 5 different synthetic cannabinoids schedule I, i.e. JWH-018). These fake "incense" products have been around for a while and every time one of them is made illegal, a new one enters the scene. This past weekend 3 were hospitalized in my home town for smoking a legal Incense product called "Atomic Bomb" purchased at the Palisades Mall. Their symptoms included dizziness, paralysis, and seizures all after smoking the incense, and all 3 remain in the intensive care unit.

Other research chemicals include: The Salts

These are products which were marketed various way at your local head shop (before authorities caught on to their use) Some sold in packaging claiming to be "bath salts" with irrelevent pictures of beaches, or "Super XXX Plant Food" boldly printed in red and black? what in the world was this stuff?
all the packages contained some kind of powder or crystalline substance. most of them contained some kind of unresearched chemical. the most well known of the "Bath Salts" contained MDPV. MDPV is a Stimulant of sorts, known about for years but never used for anything notable. It's effects are said to be remniscent of cocaine, methylphenidate, and amphetamines. However these products produced more nasty effects than pleasant ones and many unsuspecting kids were left in real physical and mental danger from consuming the drug.

The danger of unresearched drugs is that we have no guidelines to go by. there is no well known appropriate dosage, no warnings, no nothing.



The main point of this tangent is to say that: There are drugs which are time tested and trustworthy in other words, ILLEGAL. It is probably in your better interest to go with what you know and not what's legal.

Because what we aim to do here at the HRC is to teach you to think critically about what you put into your body, that means not just trusting things on first glance, legal, same as "doctor prescribed" does not mean safe. Every BODY, every chemical, and every experience is unique.

Sources Used
Another Research Chemical History
Alexander Shulgin's Wikipedia Entry
MDPV's Wikipedia Entry
LoHud News Article on Incense Incidents in Nyack, NY

Further Reading
Born Illegal: The Shulgin's and 2C-I
Connecting the Microdots: The State of the Stone 2010