The market for so-called 'Research Chemicals' (RCs) is bucking the global downturn, despite recent scare stories and bans on substances such as Mephedrone.A raft of new products are available from internet retailers and 'head shops' throughout Europe. Dubious delights such as 6-APB, which has been irresponsibly branded 'Benzo Fury' despite bearing no relation to the benzodiazepine group of drugs, are being pushed heavily as the 'next big thing' in the synthetic recreational drugs scene.
Other compounds offered for sale at the moment include MDAI and 5-IAI (MDMA/MDA derivatives that promote serotonin and dopamine reuptake) and dimethocaine and 'synthecaine' (promoted as legal alternatives to cocaine with similar effects and chemistry) to name but a few of of the most popular 'products' on the market today.
The products are sold in capsule or powder form and prices start at around 15EUR per gram, depending on the supplier, chemical and amount purchased. Anyone thinking of road-testing an RC product does so on a 'caveat emptor' (buyer beware basis): many retail RCs turn out not to contain the advertised compounds when they are analysed and the industry is currently totally unregulated. In other words, the RC market is just like the illegal drug market; perhaps even more so, as anonymous internet vendors are in some cases demonstrating they have even less scruples when it comes to palming off 'bad shit' on their clients than their peers in the traditional (illegal) recreational drug market.
A closer look at the RC market
Although most RC vendors are reluctant to divulge much about their businesses, word from those in the know is that most of the RCs flooding the market right now are manufactured in China and the Far East. These are not clandestine drug labs, but rarther legitimate chemical companies who employ teams of chemists to come up with new and interesting products; often small tweaks on existing compounds. Once they have productized a new chemical, production is ramped up and samples are sent out to potential vendors around the world, just like product samples would be sent out from any other factory to interested parties. The product is shipped in large quantities (kilos or tens/hundreds of kilos) to wholesale clients, who then sell them on at a profit to other vendors in their home countries.
Legal Issues
Due to the suspect nature of importing kilos of white powder, there are relatively few importers of RCs in a given country (again mirroring the illegal drug market). Shipments can get held up at customs for quite some time (as was recently the case with shipments of 6-ABP bound for the UK), but typically they reach their destination.
Of course, vendors must adhere to the letter of the law in order to sell RCs to the public; in the EU, for instance, they must clearly be labelled as 'not for human consumption', although this is just a formality. In the US, the RC market is far more restricted due to the Federal Analog Act, which prohibits whole classes of chemicals of designer drugs. In Europe, there is no direct equivalent of the Analog act, although laws in some countries do prohibit or schedule a chemical and its associated analogs.
RCs hit the mainstream media in the UK most recently when the media caught Mephedrone fever earlier this year. As a result of this firestorm of coverage, not to mention the surge in youngsters administering themselves frightening doses of RCs, the UK parliament banned Mephedrone and as well as other cathinone-derived compounds. Naphyrone, the synthetic stimulant branded as NRG-1, and its analogs were also banned in the UK on 23rd July 2010 (Home Office Press Release).
There has been talk in the UK about changing the law to cover all new RCs as they pop up; the proposed new law would work on the assumption that new chemicals must be analyzed and OK'd by authorities before they are allowed on sale. However, it is unclear how such regulation would be implemented without disrupting the mainstream market in (non-recreational) industrial chemicals, particularly as RCs are not officially sold for human consumption and hence fall under the same regulatory guidelines as other chemicals imported for research or industrial uses.
Safety
Many of the RCs currently on the market are untested and potentially highly dangerous, even in the cases where they are uncontaminated and correctly labelled. Anecdotal evidence on forums suggests that many recreational users are experiencing unpleasant or even downright scary reactions to RCs in some cases. Of course, anecdotal evidence does not constitute rigorous medical testing or chemical analysis and there are also plenty of reports of people having had a great time on RCs; 'your mileage may vary' is probably a very appropriate adage here.
Those seeking to learn more about RCs are suggested to check out two of the more respected sources of drug information on the internet: Erowid and BlueLight (note: NarcoTrends takes no responsibility for the veracity or otherwise of information found anywhere on the internet - including the NarcoTrends site!).
What Next for RCs?
A few things seem clear; whilst the market in RCs remains largely unregulated, some people will suffer from adverse reactions, overdoses, etc. and healthcare professionals will be ill-informed and ill-equipped to deal with the fallout. RC vendors will continue to make massive profits; sometimes even by knowingly mis-labeling their products to cash in on the latest much-hyped RC brand, but most of them acting perfectly legitimately, trading in legal substances in good faith.
Old-time proponents of RCs are currently bemoaning the 'commercialization' of the industry, with all the associated media hype, irresponsible users ingesting dangerous doses, and tightening of regulation. Elsewhere, users of illegal recreational drugs, point to the 'dangerous RC scene' as evidence for sticking with well-known and 'reliable' old standards such as ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamines. Summing up this attitude, David, a recreational drug user, told NarcoTrends:
"I'd much rather take speed than some of these new and untested legal highs such as NRG-1. At least I know what I'm getting and the side effects are well known."
What David and others like him often fail to appreciate is the bleed-over between the commercial RC scene and the illegal drug market; always on the look out for cheap ways to bulk up their illegal product with cheap and legal active cutting agents, many dealers are now adulterating their speed, coke and MDMA with RC chemicals that cost less and can be warehoused with no risk of prosecution.
