[gpcr1949]

With all due respect for the forensic chemists and their good work on identifying an unknown substance, it is fairly common for forensic groups to once in a while detect new chemical analogs of known drugs. A few years back, lots of new cannabinoids and cathinones were getting released constantly as older analogs were getting banned. Often, these novel analogs are pharmacological low hanging fruit. The drug in this article is also such low-hanging fruit: it is well known an N-methyl to N-ethyl substitution does not lead to reduced activity in this category of arylcyclohexylamine dissociative anesthetics (this was actually one of the SAR considerations taken by the designers of methoxetamine!). And indeed, this very same substitution was used here on 2-Fluorodeschloroketamine, leading to the drug from the article.

PS the Chinese abbreviation for "CanKet", 2F-NENDCK, most likely stands for 2-fluoro-N-ethyl-nordeschloroketamine. It is almost certain this drug was synthesized by a Chinese custom synthesis group (the most typical source for these type of substances at scale) and not by Australian clandestine chemists.

[tsol]

>It is almost certain this drug was synthesized by a Chinese custom synthesis group (the most typical source for these type of substances at scale) and not by Australian clandestine chemists.

Most people don't realize this, but you can order a synthesis of just about any (legal) chemical with enough money. People do it for pharmaceutical or nootropic drugs sometimes in group buys. It's trivial if you have enough money to find some vaguely legal analog of a recreational drug, and order a synthesis of it. 2f-dck is a ketamine analog that I believe is still legal and reported to be very similar in effect, and I'd guess 2f-nendck is somewhat similar to that. Not that I'm suggesting anyone should, there are risks and it's not an easy process. It's just interesting how easily accessible it is if you have the right information.

[Loic]

To the point to be annoying. I am running an open database of chemical properties[0], I get nearly every single day Chinese companies proposing me to buy whatever compounds they are producing including non legal ones.

Even more stupid, I get phone calls and email asking me if I can source stupidly well known illegal drug for a friend doing some research. Even if this is clear that I am just providing experimental data and no chemicals at all.

So yes, you can get chemicals very easily and you have a lot of providers which are not really looking at the legality of the stuff.

[0]: https://www.chemeo.com

[rendall]

A friend is looking to do research into any one of the following: Can-D, Chew-Z, skooma (moon sugar ok), Jet or UltraJet, spark, spike, spin or spank, and velocet. They are prepared to pay well. You can reach them here: https://youtu.be/PZqx-lMZHM0

[rendall]

In case it isn't clear to some people, these are all nerdy references to fictional drugs in video games and science fiction stories where the drug plays an important role in the story

[Our_Benefactors]

Sorry, only Zyme is available these days.

[zasdffaa]

Howzabout some clarky cat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIAJemmO-bg

The first 5 minute of this is one of the funniest things I've watched.

[rendall]

This video contains content from LDS, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds

Weird. Mormons getting salty?

[zasdffaa]

That's a pity. It's from Brass Eye (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye), a piss-take on panicky documentaries, it's the drugs one and totally brilliant. And they got a mandrill on it.

Most of them are well worth a watch, get them if you can.

[bel_marinaio]

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5b9k3m - Brass Eye S01E02 "Drugs"

Worked for me in the US

[rendall]

Ok, me too, in Europe. Although the first 40 seconds are a black screen with no audio

[rendall]

I could not watch the video, but from Urban Dictionary, this is a basis for a brilliant prank: ... there is an elaborate verbal dance that you need to go through with them as they pretend not to know what you are talking about, but perseverance is the key here.

[gilleain]

Off topic, but Cheméo is very nice: search by InChIKey, similarity search, the page of results as images. Great work!

[Loic]

Thank you! If you need more functionalities, just let me know.

[LinuxBender]

Will those labs also synthesize non recreational drugs? I would like to be able to stockpile some ace2 binding drugs. I have the formula and the ingredients but lack the equipment to do it accurately and safely. I keep things around in the event of a full economic crash and would just take risks and apply redneck-science if it came to that but a proper lab would be ideal.

[gpcr1949]

They definitely will, this is after all the intended purpose of these firms, and some of the more professional among them are producing cGMP APIs at scale in a completely legitimate context. Although if you have a need for ACE2 inhibitors (not sure which kind of binders you need for which purpose ...) that are marketed and formulated it may be more convenient to just source a large amount of the pharmaceutical product, though I can't comment on the legality of doing that.

[vintermann]

Still legal for what purposes? Selling for consumption? I doubt it.

When you sell stuff as medicine, food or anything in between, of course it should be on you to prove that it's safe. That's not unreasonable.

Neither is it unreasonable to ask, if you sit there with 100kg of some novel molecule custom ordered from a Chinese lab, what you were planning to use it for. And it'd better not be selling it for consumption.

[failrate]

They are referred to as "research chemicals", so the implication is that they have been synthesizes for e.g. an experiment or animal trial. This is merely puffery to hide the fact that it is a loophole to get technically not yet illegal variants of drugs.

[girvo]

Indeed. Though as a semi-related aside, Canberra recently had some stats put out where quite literally less that 50% of "ketamine" tested was actually ketamine, most of the street ketamine out here now are these research chemical analogs.