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What career can I pursue that deals with drugs?

K

Kelso23

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Jul 18, 2019
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I have one main interest and that interest is drugs. Mainly the natural and safe drugs like shrooms weed etc. Im interested in phsycopharmacology which is like the study of how drugs affect your mind and behavior. I want to spread the truth that there are many drugs that are prohibited and illegal that shouldn't be and alot of drugs that are bad are only bad because they're no legal so they can't be regulated.i want to study drugs and there benefits and affects. I want to change the world for the better. I want to change the stigma drugs have. Anyway I was hoping I could get some help on what I could do for a career that would envolve this type of shit. I also want a career where I don't get drugtested but I realize if I'm at a job working with drugs they probably will but maybe not I don rlly know. Any feedback is appreciated.
 
In addition to biology, pharmacology, and organic chemistry coursework at university level, since computers are used so much in the pharmacological fields -- with Dr Paul Janssen of piritramide, loperamide, dextromoramide, fentanyl & haloperidol fame being one of the early adopters -- I would propose going a little beyond the mathematics requirement and at least 18 credit-hours of programming and computer science courses as well. Note also that the international languages of chemical and other engineering are English, German, and Japanese, and there is a lot of literature in the latter two which has not yet been translated into English.

Some people have a knack for this kind of thing and turns out to not be such an extreme slog. For example, Dr Vincent Dole of Nyswander & Dole fame crammed seven semesters of biology and chemistry into one summer and got into medical school that September.

Drugs testing would vary from place to place depending on custom and local privacy laws -- I am not sure if there is anywhere on earth that drugs testing is as big a thing as it is in the US .. .

And/or, if capital can be obtained and you have at least six or eight like-minded individuals to help, starting one's own pharmaceutical company may be a possibility -- and you can eat the mistakes.

If one is a pharmacology student at university and/or inventor, I gather that, to cite one example, if you have a 350 kilo safe in a laboratory of some type, one could apply for a licence to handle controlled substances -- DEA Form 223 I think it is called in the states, and then there are local permits and licences required too. That licence is for Schedules II to V and I think that Schedule I authorisation is in the licences that laboratories and manufacturers have.
 
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Nicomorphinist said:
I am not sure if there is anywhere on earth that drugs testing is as big a thing as it is in the US .. .
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Just take a look at Germany, where it isn't even allowed for harm reduction organisations to do drug testing, I can imagine that pharmacies either aren't allowed to either or if they are officially, then you won't find anyone willing to do so. In Europe it's pretty bad overall, I know only of Spain where an organization does analysis of sent-in samples, yet for a fee of 50€ if I remember it correctly, and Switzerland (Zürich) where you can bring one sample per person and week in exchange for a 30min interview about drug use and harm reduction.. Don't know what technique they use, there is a list of 42 quantifiable substances on their web page which sounds like it's not GC/MS and probably not able to distinguish some more obscure RCs and even unreacted precursors and stuff alike.

In Switzerland/Germany it's also very hard if not straight impossible to do something like private research, backyard chemistry etc. legally as you won't find anyone selling even basic lab stuff, maybe some glassware for astronomic prices but that's it,. Pharmacies aren't allowed to sell you more than like 10ml of isopropanol alcohol at one time for a hefty price. Don't know how it is handled at universities though.
 
dopamimetic said:
In Europe it's pretty bad overall, I know only of Spain where an organization does analysis of sent-in samples, yet for a fee of 50€ if I remember it correctly, and Switzerland (Zürich) where you can bring one sample per person and week in exchange for a 30min interview about drug use and harm reduction..
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You're forgetting about the Netherlands, where they have very-thorough government-funded testing of street drugs, I believe to the point where they even give percentage purities. However, Nicomorphinist was referring to drug testing in the sense of testing an employee to see if they are using drugs. This is done broadly in the U.S. In Canada, it's strictly forbidden except for in a handful of industries (e.g. heavy equipment operators).
 
S.J.B. said:
You're forgetting about the Netherlands, where they have very-thorough government-funded testing of street drugs, I believe to the point where they even give percentage purities. However, Nicomorphinist was referring to drug testing in the sense of testing an employee to see if they are using drugs. This is done broadly in the U.S. In Canada, it's strictly forbidden except for in a handful of industries (e.g. heavy equipment operators).
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The other thing I would point out is that drugs testing, which at a minimum is an outrageous invasion of privacy, and abridgement of autonomy, cannot be defended from an economic standpoint either . . . it is simply not cost-effective, and firms and agencies which do it, like Amtrak I assume, do it as a kind of propaganda of the deed to convince customers and others that they run a tight ship. Either that or they don't really know better.

I heard of one case in the United States which warms the cockles of my heart -- a company which was mainly white-collar office workers instituted post-offer and for cause drugs testing but had to rescind it six months later because of what was becoming a chronic labour shortage -- people just wouldn't tolerate it.
 
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behavioral neuroscience as a necessary precedent. tons of biology. chemistry and physics.

otherwise tons of schooling.
 
Psychologists can also do statistical studies about the effect of drug use on people's behavior and mental health. That doesn't require laboratory work.
 
Psychology degrees vary a bit in their specialisms. There are fundamentals about development or cognition that all will cover, but some include a but more of the drugs angle (others will do something else e.g. sex and gender). I'd look for somewhere that does a psychology, or possibly neuroscience degree, or somewhere that also has a pharmacy degree. Simply from a staff perspective you'll have a mix that is more in your area of interest. They might also be more up to date,e.g. not just seeing shrooms as recreational drugs, but investigated for possible help with depression.

Also use something like Google Scholar to find journal articles about things that interest you, then look up the researchers/academics. Firstly if you email them, many will happily send you free copies of their research, and secondly you might find clusters of people doing research that interests you at particular universities. Once you've tracked them down, send an email... if you studied there would you learn this stuff? Could you do a research project / dissertation in that area? (You'll need to be realistic about what they'll let you do at that stage - their ethics committee won't let you give "drugs" to participants!). But do email academics as many are quite flattered when someone is interested their work! Some won't reply because they are busy/ on holiday, but you might find someone really interesting/helpful.

BTW Often people only specialise in psycho-pharmacology a Masters (MS/MSc) or doctoral (PhD) level.

Good luck!
 
My mantra @Kelso23 is if you love trying drugs, steer clear of being a pharmacist and head to being a pharmacologist, I am still studying, as I am hoping to make it to specialism in neuro!!

I would say for you, maybe NeuroChemist might be a good path, read up on it till one sparks your interest the most ?
 
the world can also use more rogue industrial organic chemists, capable of both large-scale chemistry but also familiar with scaling up synthesis from 1g to 20 kg+....
:)
in fact more practical organic chemists would be nice... don't think about it as 100% memorizing arbitrary shit, it's the rules for how to put together the lego blocks of the universe (atoms) ... :O
 
If you want a career that deals with drugs you should become a drug dealer. I'm pretty sure that they don't get drug tested.

If you are interested in any basic research job ie pharmacology or anything where you will be performing experiments you will need to be persistent, methodical, good at documenting everything you do, writing constantly and finally but most important you need to read both critically and voraciously. If you think these things are rewarding it's a good path, if they seem dreadful seek other employment.

Alternatively a lot of the things you seem to want would fall under a sociology umbrella. This would be a good option if you don't mind doing a lot of reading and writing but aren't as into performing wet work. Also the research can be field research and very interesting.

Finally the advocating for drugs job seems like you would have more options, but you would want to end up looking competitive for some policy group that orbits the political spheres, then you could tell people how drugs don't kill people, people do or how kratom is just the opioid version of coffee or how weed isn't a plant, it's a medicine or whatev.

Also if you go into a research based path, contact labs that you think are cool and try to join them as early as possible. As long as grades are decent and you are smart and not skeezy and have read a handful of their papers before you meet, most labs love having free labor as long as you are hard working and ready to learn. This way though, you can get on publications and become a better candidate for grad school where you really should be picking based on handfuls of professors rather than the school at large.
 
Christ Skorpio, whether he was serious or not, there are many many sub specialities, which exclude your narrow suggestions. You are a smart bloke, direct him to something that may help eh ?!!!!
 
I'm currently in school to major in biochemistry, and plan on pursuing a career as a pharmaceutical chemist. I have wanted to work with chemicals and meds/drugs my whole life and after thinking long and hard I decided that being a chemist for big pharma would be ideal if I want to learn and research drugs hands on. I'm not talking about illegal drugs though, but psychopharmaceuticals are very interesting. I'm particularly interested in ontological therapies and immunotherapy medications, none of which are the "fun" drugs, but they are fascinating.
 
I listed three things I am remotely familiar with, not to exclude other choices but to highlight some of the less spoken aspects common with those three directions.

I feel like Kelso wants three things, correct me if I'm putting words into oral cavities.

1) to study drugs. This could be from anywhere to medicinal chemistry to pharmacology to working at a biotech to doing sociology/social work, or something else.

2) to alter the discourse relating to drugs. This could be through politics/think tanky jobs, or more activisty/harm reduction jobs or jobs with a media element.

3) to not get drug tested. This is possible with most jobs, even people who do research on illicit drugs are seldom tested (although, if something untoward happened it could be career rending, so people in those types of labs tend to proceed very carefully.) Also politicians pretty much get free reign as well as sociologists

I think you (Kelso or any random err reading this) ought to only use it is a loose guideline to picking a career, because I have strong biases and dont know you.

Also shortec, I'm not smart, I'm well read. Please dont call me smart it will offend the smart people.

And deeds, ontological therapies are super interesting. I heard they are making an antibody that targets your sense of being. The only downside is that it inhibits mTOR.
 
Good plan @Mr.Deeds impressive ?

Much better @Skorpio, and that is my opinion of your articulation, and also well read equals wisdom = smart. And/or being aware enough to be well read is also smart. Your first comments were tongue in cheek I know, but you see why I said it hopefully.

Pharmacology can be general and across the board, and also has many arterial routes of study to specialisms. People I know in these fields may have been affected by a family member specifically treated with certain drugs or not due to lack of research etc.

My personal reasons were, due to an interest in neuropharmacologists I admired and the work they did to further the help for social reintrogation compounds!!!!
 
OP, if you are interested in working in the drug field, you can start off at a low level position in a pharmaceutical based company. Many plasma centers hire people with little to no experience to help do medical screening and phlebotomy and take samples to send off for testing. After a little bit of schooling and obtaining an associate's or BA degree, their are opportunities to move up in those companies where you can eventually work in labs that actually take the antibodies and proteins to that make the medications/biologics. It is a long road to working in the drug industry but it is worth it. And having a job already involved with the industry would look good on a resume. Take small steps to reach the end of a long road.
 
Well said @Mr.Deeds ?

Absolutely, even as a pharmacy assistant you will be viewed more favourably in future ascents of the ladder as you rightly said ?
 
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