Designer Drugs Addiction and Treatment

What Is a Designer Drug?

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recognizes seven different types of designer drugs:

• Synthetic cannabinoids
• Phenethylamines
• Phencyclidines or arylcyclohexamines
• Tryptamines
• Piperazines
• Pipradrols
• N-ring systems

These drugs are developed in order to mimic the effects of drugs that are often notorious and banned. Most of them work a lot like cocaine or other stimulants, but one type of designer drug, cannabinoids, does something different. This drug mimics the action of marijuana, and it’s the most popular of the designer drugs, the DEA says.

For some users, these drugs are appealing simply because their legal status is a little unclear. Chemists have worked hard to develop drugs that don’t contain the hallmarks and attributes that drug enforcement communities look for. So that means some drug users can get high with these substances without facing arrest or some other form of consequence. Some drug tests may not pick up synthetic drugs, so their use may go undetected entirely.

A second class of users takes designer drugs as part of a multi-drug, pro-drug lifestyle. According to research highlighted in New York Magazine, these drug users scour the Internet for new drugs to try, and they document their experiences to inform others. They may feel that they’re connoisseurs of drugs with enhanced palettes and a boosted sense of what a drug should and should not do. They may take pride in their ability to seek out and try a new drug before anyone else has done so.

To this class of users, designer drugs are appealing simply because they confer status. Unlike other drugs that anyone might take and enjoy, these drugs are unusual and unique, available to only a select few.

Are They Addictive?

It’s easy to understand why people might be tempted to abuse these drugs. But are they addictive? It’s hard to know.

Since designer drugs are made in laboratories by people who aren’t subject to quality control standards or governmental oversight, the drugs are often radically different from one batch to another.

One manufacturer might make the drug a certain way, while another might do things differently. Should regulators ban an ingredient or an element, all the manufacturers might shift things again in order to evade prosecution. That makes performing in-depth studies about the effects of these drugs incredibly difficult. Researchers just don’t know what these things are, much less how they work.

But some research suggests that these drugs at least have the potential to spark addictive changes in the human brain. The cannabinoid drugs, for example, contain elements that are known to work on brain receptors triggered by marijuana, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This means these drugs could be just as addictive as marijuana is, although more research must be done in order to verify that.