Synthetic Drugs and Analogues - What Does It Mean?

[HYDRO_CHRONIC]

when i try and explain to friends/family what a analog is i kinda fall short on the real answer ,i mean what exactly do they do to make a analog ,its got to be similar in structure i understand that but how do they make it this way,


now makeing a synthetic is(is not ) the same? say if i was explaining to sombody that ,well u have morphine,to make a synthetic or somthing close to it you basically do this this and that so u end up with somthing that hits the same receptors


and a analog is this,i was wrong in what i was thinking a analog was ,im just a average "jo" type i guess and for somreason i thought they went inside the chemical structure and altered the molecules to make it different ,from what im reading this is wrong ,but i never read anything to tell me exactly what it is and how its made to be what it is


im tired of not having an answer to this when asked ,like when people ask me what bath salts are and i tell them that its a analog of methamphetamine and they say whats that ...i kinda freeze up and cant get my point across

 

[sekio]

Synthetic drugs are drugs that are made in laboratories instead of being extracted from plants, animals or bacteria. They are synthesized to be identical to the purified compounds from natural products.

For instance, some chemical companies/supplement maufacturers sell synthetic caffeine (made in batch quantities in a lab somewhere), and others get thir supply from caffeine extracted from the decaffeination process (tea and coffee). Others still use natural products like guarana extracts, but the caffeine molecule is the samein all of these.

Analogues are drugs that have close structural resemblance and similar effects. For instance one could argue that naproxen (Aleve) is an analog of ibuprofen (Motrin/Advil).
Most analogues are designed because "true synthetic" natural products are hard to make, or are not potent enough. For instance, morphine is poorly absorbed and of only moderate potency, but if it is converted into hydromorphone or heroin (analogues) it gains potency and can be more completely absorbed (in the case of some morphine esters). However all tthe classical opiates are very hard to make in laboratories, so drugs like pethidine, methadone, abd fentanyl were devloped that are much easier to make and are not dependent on opium poppy production.

Bath salts are actually closer to analogues of cathinone, a drug found in a plant called Khat used as a stimulant. Also closely related are ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from Ephedra spp. Methcathinone is another illegal street drug that is actually the parent compound for many of these so called "bath salts". I say this because bath salts don't seem to produce the same brain damage or acute effects as methamphetamine, although they are still potent psychostimulants. The cathinones act much closer to cocaine instead of amphetamines in the brain.

The only drug out at the moment I would call an analogue of methamphetamine is methiopropamine (MPA).

Whether or not a drug is an "analogue" is independent of whether it is natural or not. One could argue that natural mitragynine in kratom is a morphine analogue because it produces similar effects.

 

[HYDRO_CHRONIC]

that taught me a few things but what im getting at is ,what do they do ,take all the components that make up a natural chemicals and cram em together so they will stimulate the same receptors ,this might take a minute for me to get

let me put it this way

what makes a analog a analog ,whats different in the process of making it ,than when a synthetic is made

 

[sekio]

An analogue is a very vague term.

In pharmacology it is used to refer to one of two concepts:

Functional analog, a chemical compound with similar properties to another
Structural analog, a chemical compound with a slightly altered chemical structure compared to another

In this case it just so happens that chemists stumbled across a series of compounds (cathinones) that are both structurally similar and share effects to a natural compound (cathinone). Hence they are called analogues.

Nothing about how they are made makes them "analogues". It is just a comparison. Like Mandarin oranges could be considered analogues of Navel oranges.

 

[HYDRO_CHRONIC]

ohhhh...ok that makes sense

 

[negrogesic]

My advice would be to simply not classify unknown compounds as methamphetamine analogs, and even if you know the active component of these 'salts', do not classify them to be analogs of methamphetamine if they are not. Such incorrect portrayals only serve to drum up fear and hysteria.

With MDPV for instance, you could simply describe it as a synthetic stimulant with a structure/activity similar to one that occurs in nature (ie, Khat). Such a description is somewhat factual, and does induce the panic caused by the word 'Meth' (for which MDPV is not an analog).

Regards for Sekio in his most diplomatic and informative response

 

[Hammilton]

The only drug out at the moment I would call an analogue of methamphetamine is methiopropamine (MPA)

What? 4-Methylmethcathinone and all of the N-methyl cathinones are analogues of meth!

(for which MDPV is not an analog)

Well, it may not be a close analogue, but I don't think it's much of a stretch to call it an analogue.

It's hard to come up with a chemical currently marketed that's not an analogue of a Schedule I or II drug, actually. Hell, even virtually all of the AAI's are either explicitly scheduled or analogues.

 

[sekio]

It depends how loosely you want to define "methamphetamine analogue" The N-methyl cathinones are generally not potent triple monoamine releasers that cause neurotoxicity. Methamphetamine is. The beta ketone goes a long way in altering pharmacology.

But yes, they could be considered methamphetamine analogs, or amphetamine, or ephedrine, or phnethylamine anlogues too.