The Hallucinogens

Drugs in the hallucinogenic class have not yet been proven safe for medical purposes and are not legally available in drugstores. Their sole legitimate use at present is by qualified researchers in connection with investigation reported to and authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (1). 

The only legal producer of LSD ceased manufacture in April 1966, and turned over its entire supply of the drug to the Federal Government. A few closely monitored experimental projects involving LSD are still in progress (2). 

The hallucinogenic drug traffic appears to be less profit oriented than others (3). 

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Problem 24.23 Which nitrogen atom in the hallucinogenic indole alkaloid jV,A -dimethyltryptamine is more basic Explain. 

Some neuroleptics, including clozapine, are potent 5-HT-receptor antagonists and the possible role of 5-HT in the action of neuroleptics and the development of schizophrenia has recently generated much interest (Busatto and Kerwin 1997). This has centred primarily on 5-HT2A receptors found in the limbic cortex, which are linked to neuronal excitation and believed to mediate the hallucinogenic effects of drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). 

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. 

The more active stereochemistry of the entactogens is S, while that of the hallucinogenic amphetamines is R. 

Sptller, M., and Nichols, D.E. Effects of the hallucinogenic drugs LSD, DOM scopolamine on the frequency content of field potentials from the rat brain (Tele-stereo-EEG). Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Abs. 451, March 1988. 

Recent controversy about the recreational abuse and potential therapeutic use of designer drugs has focused attention on MDA (methylenedioxyampheta-mine HCl) and structurally related phenylisopropylamine compounds, including MDMA istructural analogs of the psychomotor stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline, and produce stimulant and/or hallucinogenic effects (Shulgin 1978). 

Glennon, R.A, Young, R. Bennington, F. and Morin, R.D. Behavioral and serotonin receptor properties of 4-substituted derivatives of the hallucinogen l-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-aminopropane. J Med Chem 25 1163- 1168, 1982. 

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