Designer drug  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to:
navigation, search  Designer drug is an informal term for
psychoactive drugs that were initially discovered through the
research of, or experimentation upon, or with respect to, the
structure and activity of existing drugs. The development of new
psychoactive drugs is a subfield of drug design. In most
instances of designer drug discovery, the exploration of small
modifications to known active drugs—such as their structural
analogues, stereoisomers, and derivatives—yields drugs that may
differ greatly in effects from their “basis” drug (e.g. showing
increased potency, or decreased side effects).[1] In some
instances, designer drugs have similar subjective effects to
other drugs, but have completely dissimilar chemical structures.
In some jurisdictions, drugs that are highly similar in
structure to a prohibited drug are illegal to trade regardless
of that drug's legal status. In other jurisdictions, their trade
is a legal grey area, making them gre