Analogues illegal

In 1979-1980, some illegal fentanyl analogues appeared that were being sold as substitutes for heroin on the street. Suddenly, a series of more than a dozen mysterious deaths occurred in southern California. Upon autopsy, the victims strongly looked as if they had overdosed on heroin however, no traces of heroin could be found in their bodies. Later, forensic chemists identified a fentanyl analogue (alpha-methyl-fentanyl) that was present in all of the victims. As it turns out, alpha-methyl-fentanyl was being sold on the streets under the name China White (Figure 7.2), because it resembled (and contained) pure synthetic heroin that was produced in Southeast Asia. 

Figure 7.2 China White powder, shown here, is a synthetic form of heroin that is very pure. China White that was tainted with illegal fentanyl analogues, which are hundreds of times more potent than heroin, caused numerous overdoses in heroin addicts in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Figure 7.3 The chemical structure of fentanyl and its illegal analogues alpha-methyl-fentanyl and 3-methyl-fentanyl are shown here. Fentanyl was originally designed and marketed as an anesthetic, as it is 100 times stronger than morphine.

Gamma butyrolactone (GBL). GBL is a widely used chemical solvent, and one of the more readily available analogues of GHB because it is used in many industrial cleaners. While GBL is not intended for use as a drug, because it converts into GHB inside the body when ingested, it is commonly sold illegally as GHB. 

In recent years, not a few scientific articles have been published about the eoun-terfeiting of heibal preparations and dietary supplements intended for the treatment of male sexual dysfunction (erectile dysfunction). The earliest reports appeared around the turn of the millennium, soon after the introduction of the first phosphodiesterase enzyme inhibitor drag called sildenafil (Viagra ) in 1998 (Fig. 3.51). Subsequently, an increasing number of articles detected the illegal use of sildenafil or its analogues in preparations of heibal origin . 

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