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Abstract
Synthetic cathinones (SCat) are amphetamine-like psychostimulants that emerged onto drug markets as “legal” alternatives to illicit drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine, and amphetamines. Usually they are sold as “bath salts,” “plant food,” or “research chemicals,” and rapidly gained popularity amongst drugs users due to their potency, low cost, and availability. In addition, internet drug sales have been replacing the old way of supplying drugs of abuse, contributing to their rapid spread. Despite the legislative efforts to control SCat, new derivatives continue to emerge on the recreational drugs market and their abuse still represents a serious public health issue. To date, about 150 SCat have been identified on the clandestine drugs market, which are one of the largest groups of new psychoactive substances (NPS) monitored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Similar to the classical stimulants, SCat affect the levels of catecholamines in the central nervous system, which results in their psychological, behavioral and toxic effects. Generally, the effects of SCat greatly differ from drug to drug and relatively little information is available about their pharmacology. The present work provides a review on the development of SCat as substances of abuse, current patterns of abuse and their legal status, chemical classification, known mechanisms of action, and their toxicological effects.
Declaration of interest
This work was supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (project PEst-OE/QUI/UI0674/2019, CQM, Portuguese Government funds, and the PhD fellowships SFRH/BD/116895/2016 and SFRH/BD/117426/2016 granted to João Gonçalves and Vera Alves, respectively), and through Madeira 14–20 Program, project PROEQUIPRAM - Reforço do Investimento em Equipamentos e Infraestruturas Científicas na RAM (M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000008) and by ARDITI-Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação Tecnologia e Inovação, through the project M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000005 - Centro de Química da Madeira - CQM+ (Madeira 14–20). None of the authors have participated in any legal or regulatory proceedings in last 5 years related to the contents of this paper. This paper is the exclusive professional work product of the authors.