Psychoactive properties

The mode of action of the amphetamine derivatives MDA and MDMA seems to be dissimilar, with MDMA possessing mescaline-like psychoactive properties. MDMA demonstrates greater serotonergic effects than does the more amphetamine-like MDA. 

MDMA is believed to have unique psychoactive properties that clearly distinguish it from hallucinogenic or psychostimulant phenethylamines. Not only have MDMA users consistently reported this distinctiveness, but subsequent studies of MDMA and similar compounds, in many laboratories, have shown that they do not fit within the structure-activity relationships that presently are understood to define the hallucinogenic amphetamines. 

MDA had unique psychoactive properties that were different from hallucinogens such as LSD or mescaline. While MDA in high doses appears to be hallucinogenic or psychotomimetic, it seems not to have been used for this effect, but rather for its effects on mood production of a sense of decreased anxiety and enhanced self-awareness. Even early reports described the desire of MDA users to be with and talk to other people (Jackson and Reed 1970). MDA is also the only substituted amphetamine that received serious clinical study as an adjunct to psychotherapy (Yensen et al. 1976). 

The term designer drug was prohahly first used in 1968 by Gary Henderson, a chemist at the University of California at Davis. Henderson defined designer drugs as "substances where the psychoactive properties of a drug are retained, but the molecular structure has been altered to avoid prosecution."... 

By the late 1960s, a handful of individual researchers began to synthesize MDMA and to study its psychoactive properties, exploring possible applications for the treatment of mental and emotional disorders. One of the hrst, and probably most famous, of these investigators was Alexander Shulgin, professor of chemistry at San Francisco State University. Shulgin tested the effects of MDMA on himself and later wrote the hrst scholarly paper on the compound and its psychoactive effects, "The psychotomimetic properties of 3,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine, published in the journal Nature in 1961 (with S. Bunnell and T. Sargent). 

Note The cannabis plant has been cultivated for centuries both for the production of hemp fiber and for its presumed medicinal and psychoactive properties. The smoke from burning cannabis contains many chemicals, including 61 different cannabinoids that have been identified. One of these, A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (A9-THC), produces most of the characteristic... 

Powder cocaine and coca leaves cannot be smoked. The heat required to smoke these forms of cocaine destroys its psychoactive properties. In order to smoke cocaine, it must be changed to a free-base form. In South America, the most common free base is coca paste. In the West, people smoke crack, and to a much lesser extent, free base made with ether. The free base or crack is put into a glass pipe, heated, and the vapors are inhaled. 

In addition to plant sources of hallucinogenic chemicals, several species of toads produce venom that has psychoactive properties. Members of the genus Bufo, particularly Bufo marinus and Bufo alvarius, contain bufotenine and 5-MeO-DMT. Typically toads are either licked or milked for their venom, which is then smoked or ingested. Alternatively, their dried skin may be smoked. 

Ketamine (Figure 25-2) produces dissociative anesthesia, which is characterized by catatonia, amnesia, and analgesia, with or without actual loss of consciousness. The drug is an arylcyclohexylamine chemically related to phencyclidine (PCP), a drug frequently abused because of its psychoactive properties. The mechanism of action of ketamine may involve blockade of the... 

Marijuana, or Cannabis sativa, is a weed-like plant that grows in temperate and tropical climates. Although best known for its psychoactive properties and use as a recreational drug, marijuana has also been used historically for industrial and medicinal purposes not related to its mind altering abilities. 

The body s systems respond more slowly after marijuana is eaten. People who ingest marijuana, which may be cooked and incorporated into a meal, experience a slower onset of effects because the drug has to first go through the digestive process before it reaches the bloodstream and is carried to the central nervous system. The stomach absorbs marijuana unevenly after it is eaten owing to the fat-soluble properties of THC. Regardless of whether THC is inhaled or ingested, heat is required to convert marijuana to its psychoactive properties... 

All parts of the hemp plant contain psychoactive substances some 60 active ingredients, the cannabinoids, have been isolated from the plant to date. In addition, over 300 non-cannabinoid compounds have been identified which do not appear to contribute to the psychoactive properties of the plant. The highest cannabinoid concentrations are found in the flowering heads. 

Adam Gottlieb, A Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Herbs and Chemicals with Psychoactive Properties (Manhattan Beach, CA 20th Century Alchemist, 1973), p. 1. 

A Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Herbs and Chemicals with Psychoactive Properties... 

Note Other methylated tryptamines with similar psychoactive properties include 6-fluoro-alpha-methyltrypta-5-methyltryptamine, N-methyltryptamine, 5-methyltryptamine. The dosage, effects, and contraindications are about the same for these as for the above. Some of the non-methylated derivatives are also active. These include 5-and 6-fluorotryptamine and 5- and 6-fluorotryptophan. 

The ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes sent samples of a cultivated Mexican morning glory to Hofmann in 1959, when it was still called Rivea corymbosa. He had seen it employed in divination by a Zapotec shaman in Oaxaca. Corymbosa is now considered one of five Turbina species—the only one appearing in the Americas. Though there are more than 500 species of Convolvulaceae widely scattered around the globe, they seem to have been used for their psychoactive properties only by tribes in the New World. 

Paracelsus, often regarded as the father of alchemy, first became acquainted with Cannabis products while in Basel, Switzerland, where the pharmaceutical firm of Sandoz now stands. It was also there that the botanist Leonhardt Fuchs sketched a charming, classic drawing of the sativa plant in 1543- By this time, the inebriating effects of sativa % resin had been discovered by Europeans. Francois Rabelais, writing in the early sixteenth century devoted three small chapters of his Third Book of Pantegruel to this herb s botanical and psychoactive properties. 

Many variables affect the psychoactive properties of cannabis, including the potency of the cannabis used, the route of administration, the smoking technique, the dose, the setting, the user s past experience, the user s... 

Most psychoactive drugs come from plants, and there are hundreds of plants with psychoactive properties. People have put most of them to use in one part of the world or another at one time or another. Often drug plants taste bad, are weak, or have unwanted side effects. Traditional peoples who use these plants, such as Native Americans, have come up with clever ways of preparing and ingesting them to maximize the desired effects or make them easier to take. Traditional peoples do not tamper with the chemical composition of the plants, however. For example, South American Indians have found that drying coca leaves and mixing them with ashes or other alkalis increases their stimulant effect. They have also learned to make a powerful snuff from the resin of the virola tree (a DMT-containing plant) in order to take... 

Mushrooms are the most important natural psychedelics of southern Mexico, used in ceremonies so sacred that Indians carefully concealed them from Europeans until the present century. It wasn t until the 1950s that descriptions of Mexican mushrooms came to the attention of the world. Soon after, botanists began to identify the mushrooms in use, and chemists found that their psychoactive properties came from psilocybin, an indole hallucinogen similar to LSD but with a shorter duration of action four to six hours. 

Why would plants produce chemicals with these peculiar properties Do plants have headaches Do they have trouble sleeping Why have they evolved chemicals with analgesic, sedative, or psychoactive properties ... 

The discovery that the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) was known for its psychoactive properties in Siberia invited the conclusion that this mushroom was used as a psychotropic agent in medieval Europe as well. In fact, there is very little evidence from the Middle Ages to indicate widespread knowledge of the effects of specific mushrooms on human consciousness. However, I believe that past reports on psychoactive mushrooms were causally linked to Amanita muscaria simply because this was the only known psychotropic mushroom in Europe at that time. 

A drug produced from the resin that covers the flowers of the cannabis hemp plant. The resin generally contains a greater ( ncentration of the drug s psychoactive properties. 

Drugs have been used for a variety of reasons in different cultures for thousands of years the earliest drug use involved ingestion of alcohol and of plants with psychoactive properties. 

The cannabis plant was raised for its psychoactive properties by the setders at Jamestown and later by George Washington. 

Despite what appeared to some as attractive features of cannabis and hashish, the use of this drug did not immediately catch on in Europe. In fact, using cannabis for its psychoactive properties did not become widespread in Europe until the 1960s, when it was reintroduced by, among odiers, tourists from the United States (Bloomquist, 1971). 

F Although they did cultivate the cannabis plant, it was for the use of its fiber and not for its psychoactive properties. 

Of the 24 categories of drugs listed in Table 14.3, we focus on those that have psychoactive properties analgesics, cold and allergy medications, stimulants, and sedatives. 

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