Research chemicals

Research chemicals (also called experimental chemicals or unresearched chemicals) are psychoactive substances which have undergone little to no human or animal medical research or investigation. It is for these reasons that the use of research chemicals may be more risky than the use of more well-studied drugs such as MDMA, or cannabis. Most information about research chemicals are based on first-hand experiences and anecdotal evidence. More than one hundred research chemicals, including [[2C-E and DOM, were discovered by Alexander Shulgin and written about in his books PiHKAL and TiHKAL.

Research chemicals have similar effects to many illegal drugs and are often invented in order to bypass current drug laws or improve upon existing substances. For example, MXE was invented to be "a stress-free version of ketamine" and the "perfect dissociative."

Harm potential and toxicity

The safety profile of research chemicals is unknown because they have not been studied in a medical context on humans or animals. There is little to no information on the toxicity, health risks, long-term side effects, or lethal dosage of these chemicals, which make their use more risky than the use of more common substances like LSD or MDMA.

In terms of risk factors, Erowid states that "mislabeling, misidentification, issues of purity, adulteration, and misrepresentation (substitution) are unfortunately a common problem with research chemicals." It is recommended to avoid branded products or blends if the active psychoactive compounds are not listed on the labelling. Combining research chemicals also presents a risk due to the lack of research.

Analogue Misconception

Remember, just because it is an analogue of something, does not mean it will behave the same way.

An example of this can be seen in the following comparison of two structurally related chemicals MDAI and MDMA. MDMA has been documented since the late 60's. MDAI is an analogue of MDMA, and while it produces some similar effects to MDMA it differs in that it's non-nuerotoxic.

Or we can take 2C-B and its analogues such as BK-2C-B, 25B-NBXXX, TCB-2, DOB, Bromo-Dragon-Fly, 2C-B-FLY. The parent drug in this example is much safer than the rest. There is no record of a death from 2C-B alone, with 25B-NBOMe there have been reports of multiple deaths during its short history of release.

• Some are very new, while others may have been around for years but haven't had adequate enough medical investigation to quantify health risks, have not been consumed by many people over a long period, or had much data accumulated about their use. Little is known about them, and a good deal of what is known is based only on first-hand psychonautical reports. Scant to no research has been completed on the toxicology or human pharmacology of these drugs. Few, if any, formal human or animal studies have been done. Because of this, some have suggested that they would more appropriately be called "unresearched chemicals". Another term for them is "experimental chemicals", and this may better communicate the unknown risks associated with ingesting these drugs.