Drugs of choice or drugs of abuse?

Marijuana-based drugs: innovative therapeutics or designer drugs of abuse?

The principal psychoactive component of marijuana, Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), activates CB1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1Rs). Unfortunately, pharmacological research into the design of effective THC analogs has been hampered by psychiatric side effects. THC-based drug design of a less academic nature, however, has led to the marketing of "synthetic marijuana," labeled as K2 or "Spice," among...

Drugs of Abuse

Microcrystalline identification of drugs of abuse: stimulant street drugs.

The microcrystallographic properties of the diliturate (5-nitrobarbituric acid) derivatives of certain stimulant drugs found in illicit street preparations have been determined. These microcrystallographic data can be used as a means of drug identification.

Reward and Drugs of Abuse

Although a number of perspectives on drug addiction exist, this chapter focuses on drug addiction as a type of pathology of learning and memory systems, a viewpoint that has become increasingly common since the mid1990s. Both natural rewards and drugs of abuse appear to use the same systems within the brain to influence and reinforce behavior, and it is well known that these systems are involve...

Simultaneous detection of seven drugs of abuse by the Triage panel for drugs of abuse.

This novel, competitive immunoassay simultaneously detects seven drugs of abuse in urine. A urine sample is placed in contact with lyophilized reagents, the reaction mixture is allowed to come to equilibrium (10 min), and then the whole mixture is applied to a solid phase that contains various immobilized antibodies in discrete drug-class-specific zones. After a washing step, the operator visua...