...and im also hopeing phase_dancer is right about this craze dying out because no nation needs to be dependant on drugs that would suck completly
I can see MDMA use possibly reducing with time, but to be honest, I can't see drug taking as a whole diminishing that much. What's around the corner we really can't say, but you can betcha some of these drugs will prove to be just as popular as MDMA has been in recent years. What may change is just where and how the 'new drugs' are manufactured. These substances of the future are unlikely to be as easy to synthesize, so in all likelihood most will originate from within the pharmaceutical or chemical industries. Not necessarily from legal sources, but perhaps diverted or produced by some enterprising individual or company.
One might argue that no company is going to spend a fortune developing something which will at best bring about unfavorable public response and at worst be banned the moment it becomes popular. But it's almost a sure thing that such compounds already exist, tucked away in the vast libraries of the pharm giants.
These substances are the products of drug discovery, involving processes where up to several hundred compounds are produced simultaneously and later screened for activity. All it would take is for someone with this knowledge to take it a step further. Remember that not all drugs, the moment they are produced are automatically stamped illegal. This is particularly true in relation to countries which don't have a comprehensive analogues law.
On a different slant, there's been some talk in the past of substances which are benign when taken alone, but become active when mixed and taken together and there's also the novel approach to letting your enzymes "do the walking" so to speak; see fastandbulbous's thread on
Using the body to make drugs
There's also this from TiHKAL. It received quite a bit of comment when first discussed.
... Tryptophan, a natural and nutritionally essential amino-acid, is a centrally active intoxicant and sleep-provider in man. It is converted metabolically to tryptamine which is a little bit psychedelic. When administered with methionine (another amino-acid known to methylate things) it produces methylated tryptamines, the two best studied being N-methyltryptamine (NMT) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). The effects that result are hard to categorize, reflecting the diagnostic status of the patient. But something happens. In short, tryptophan, alone or in combination with MAO inhibitors or methyl donors, is a fabulous tool for exploring brain function.
from
TiHKAL # 53 hosted by Erowid
Laws and monitoring may eventually mean that todays drugs are not viable to smuggle or even deal in, but while there's a market for getting high, divisive means by which to create new (or rehash old) drugs will definitely surface. It's the
desire to get high that needs to change, but as history has repeatedly shown, this will probably never happen, particularly as current uprise in the desire to use drugs is more a
product of the expectations of a modern society.
Hold tight, the future will be full of strange and wonderful [?] things, and those things will each likely bring with them new and perhaps more dangerous practices. Unless demand is magically reduced, or until drugs become legal commodities, those interested in making big money from illegal drugs will - to quote another line from Layercake- always find a way to "make hay while the sun shines"