Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, elicits swift antidepressant effects even in subjects with treatment-resistant depression. Nonetheless, owing to the serious adverse effects associated with ketamine, including psychotomimetic effects, the development of safer rapid-acting antidepressants is imperative. The elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the antidepressant effects...
Arylcyclohexylamines are a category of substances to which the anesthetic ketamine belongs. The arylcyclohexylamines have been reported to act as antagonists of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. An analog of ketamine, 2-(ethylamino)-2-(3-methoxyphenyl)-cyclohexanone (methoxetamine; MXE), has been controlled as a narcotic in Japan and overdoses of MXE have been reported to cause health...
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a hallucinogen, synthesized from ergot alkaloid, and controlled as a narcotic in Japan. Recently, LSD derivatives have appeared as designer drugs, all over the world. In previous study, we reported identification and analysis of four LSD derivatives in four paper sheet products. In this study, we detected three additional LSD derivatives from three paper...
To prevent the abuse of new psychoactive substances (NPS), a total of 2372 substances and two plants are controlled as "Designated Substances" in Japan as of September 2019. Although the distribution of these substances has decreased for the past three years, newly-emerged NPS are still being found. In this study, we detected four lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) derivatives as designer drugs...
Cannabis use among the younger population in Japan has been steadily increasing. The aim of the present review is to highlight recent knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms of action and health risks associated with cannabis and synthetic cannabinoid consumption. We investigated the effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and synthetic cannabinoids on place conditioning in ICR mice. Both...
Cases of people experiencing disturbed consciousness or dyspnea, causing traffic accidents, or requiring ambulance transport to hospital due to abuse of law-evading chemical substances have become a serious social problem in Japan. Most law-evading herbal products are marketed as incense or herbs and consist of finely chopped, dry vegetative matter mixed with chemical substances (drugs)....
Thirty-two psychotropic substances were listed as designated substances (Shitei-Yakubutsu, 31 compounds and 1 plant) in Japan by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law in April 2007 for preventing the abuse of these substances. Subsequently, other psychoactive compounds were also added to this category, 40 substances (classified as 12 tryptamines, 17 phenethylamines, 3 piperazines, 6 alkyl nitrites, 1...
Voacanga africana (Apocynaceae) is a small tropical African tree. The root bark and seeds of this tree contain a number of alkaloids, including ibogaine (a hallucinogenic/aphrodisiac compound in bark), tabersonine (a major constituteent of seeds) and other voacanga alkaloids, traditionally used in Africa for religious purposes. Recently, some kinds of products containing this plant (root bark...
Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) is a novel ionization technique that provides for the rapid ionization of small molecules under ambient conditions. To investigate the trend of non-controlled psychotropic plants of abuse in Japan, a rapid screening method, without sample preparation, was developed using DART-time of flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) for plant products. The major psychotropic...
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government in Japan enacted an "Ordinance concerning the abuse prevention of the psychoactive drugs" in April 2006 that prohibited the manufacture, cultivation, sales, possession, use, etc., of these drugs. Therefore, we constructed a reproducible, simple, and small-scale determination method of the psychoactive drugs for the re-uptake and the release of monoamines...
Many psychotropic substances are easily available in Japan via the Internet, thus the spread of drug abuse is becoming more serious problem. To avoid drug abuse, 32 substances have been controlled in Japan since April in 2007 by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law as designated substances (Shitei-Yakubutsu, classified as 11 tryptamines, 11 phenethylamines, 2 piperazines, 6 alkyl nitrites, 1...
Many psychotropic substances are readily available in Japan via the Internet. To avoid the spread of drug abuse, some drugs have been controlled as designated substances (Shitei-Yakubutsu) in Japan since 2007 by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. Twenty-nine designated substances (classified as tryptamine, phenethylamine and piperazine types) were analyzed using color tests and TLC. The color...
Ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)/mass spectrometry (MS) analysis was performed to investigate whether commercial Salvia cultivars available in the Japanese market contain salvinorin A (1), which is an hallucinogen present in magic mint (Salvia divinorum) prior to the regulation of S. divinorum by the Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. In addition, a previously reported method to...
Drugs that have a pharmacological effect similar to legal drugs such as narcotics and stimulants are available in the market and widely used. 5-methoxy-N,N-di-iso-propyl-tryptamine (5MeO-DIPT) and alpha-methyl-tryptamine (AMT) were categorized as narcotics and were specified as legal drugs in April 2005, and also 2,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propylthiophenethylamine (4C-T-7) and...