Synthetic drugs… global drug trade
Manufactured anywhere, from DIY bathroom labs to huge chemical factories, synthetic drugs are cheaper and easier to make… because there is no reliance on the cultivation of plants.
Drug policy experts and law enforcement have all recorded a boom time for synthetic drugs, which are made entirely in labs that often mimic the effects of plant-based drugs, but which are being mass-produced in chemical factories… With plant-based drugs, users have to worry about purity and dosage, but you usually get the plant you asked for. In the freeform chemistry world of synthetics, it’s impossible for the average user to know what they have paid for unless they get it tested. And when authorities ban a plant, that’s pretty much it. But banning synthetic drugs means banning specific chemical formulas, which has produced a toxic game of whack-a-mole where a drug’s chemistry has been tweaked to sidestep the law, making the resulting product increasingly toxic and unpredictable. These toxic drugs are actually the inevitable by-product of prohibition because, as happened with transporting whiskey as opposed to beer in Prohibition-era America, there’s more profit in drugs that have a high potency-to-weight ratio.
Original Article (Vice):
Synthetic Drugs Will Change the Global Drug Trade Forever
Artwork Fair Use: Sandra regina dos santos
