What are synthetic drugs?
‘Synthetics’ is a general term for drugs that are designed to produce similar effects to the most commonly used illicit drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy. Manufacturers of this new breed of drugs change chemical structures & formulations to mimic those that are banned. These drugs are then often sprayed onto herbal mixtures of dubious and varying compositions as well as being included in pills, powders and ‘tabs’.
One of the main issues in the detection of these drugs is that they are constantly changing the chemical structure of the drug to avoid legal prosecution and thus making it harder to create detection tests.
This new breed of drugs have variously been referred to as synthetic drugs, legal highs, herbal highs, party pills, synthetic cocaine, synthetic cannabis, drug analogues, herbal ecstasy, bath salts, plant fertilizer, herbal incense and even research chemicals.
The good news is that Mediscreen™ can test for hundreds of compounds associated with these drugs.
If you would like more information – review our fact sheet here
