Synthetic cannabinoids have consistently been shown to produce discriminative stimulus effects similar to those 4F ADB of Δ9-THC (Bannister and Connor, 2018), and MDMB-FUBINACA fully substituted for Δ9-THC (Gamage et al., 2018). The chemical structures of the recent synthetic cannabinoids are unlike that of Δ9-THC, but are largely based on the structure of older synthetic cannabinoids that are known to have substantial abuse liability (Fig. 1). All 5 compounds decreased locomotor activity and produced discriminative stimulus effects similar to those of Δ9-THC, which suggests they may have abuse liability similar to that of Δ9-THC. Subsequent testing identified 5F-ADB to have been present in a total of ten people who had died from unexplained drug overdoses in Japan between September 2014 and December 2014. AMB-FUBINACA produced tremors and may be of increased risk in human recreational users.
Michael B Gatch
These findings are in agreement with earlier studies showing the synthetic cannabinoids substitute for the discriminative stimulus effects of Δ9-THC (see review by Wiley et al., 2017). Pretreatment times and dose ranges for the drug discrimination assay were selected based on the time of peak depression in the locomotor activity assay in mice. As mentioned previously, short-onset compounds have a greater abuse liability; further, compounds that have fewer adverse effects while they are active are likely to be preferred. All five of the compounds in the present study fully substituted with a pretreatment time of 15 min, suggesting a rapid onset of the discriminative stimulus effects. All of the cathinones fully substituted for the discriminative stimulus effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (≥80% drug-appropriate responding). Because response suppression may compromise stimulus control, rats failing to complete at least ten responses during the test session were excluded from the analysis of the discriminative stimulus effects of that dose of test compoun
§ (3) of the Hungarian act of Forensic Experts (2016.XXIX), the data of the reported case can be utilized freely for scientific and educational purposes without special ethical permission. These results indicate that the simultaneous intoxication of SCRA and ethanol directly and exclusively caused the death of the two victims. The victims did not have any significant diseases that could have contributed to the outcome. Very limited data are available in the scientific literature about the possible effects of the combined consumption of SCRAs and ethanol. Several case reports describe that the presence of a little ng/mL (0.37–4.1) of SCRAs and a high—but not lethal—concentration of ethanol (1.45–2.7 g/L) directly and exclusively contributed to the death of the victim [24–27] (Table 2). The fact that 4F-MDMB-BINACA was not detected in postmortem urine samples is partly explained by the high rate of hepatic metabolism of SCRAs [11, 14, 22], but also suggests that the victims consumed 4F-MDMB-BINACA shortly before their death
Legal status
Briefly, the FOB test was comprised of several behavioral changes including catalepsy, traction, tremor, convulsion, exopthalmos, piloerection, salivation, lacrimation, diarrhea, skin coloration, pinna reflex, righting reflex, and death. The FOB test was performed using published procedures (Moser et al., 1989) with some modifications. However, because of their subjective properties, it is necessary to set up a more objective automated measurement to determine their neurotoxicity. However, there are only a couple of anecdotal reports suspecting the possibility of their neurotoxicity with no scientific evidence (Cohen et al., 2012; McGuinness and Newell, 2012; Harris and Brown, 2013; Hermanns et al., 2013
A limitation of this case report is that we did not have a urine sample available for additional NPS testing. Point-of-care DOA tests using urine to screen for misuse of multiple substances, regularly include cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, opioids, benzodiazepines and methadone. THC, methamphetamine, SRCA, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and ketamine are likely to become volatile under the temperature of current e-cigarettes, while crack cocaine is hard to vaporise. A systematic review including data of 114 patients of which the majority was intoxicated due to SCRA smoking revealed that 45 % of the patients who present at the ER after an intoxication due to SCRA smoking recovered within 24 hours .
Data availability
Moreover, a study conducted in the United Kingdom investigated components of e-liquids in 112 samples originating from prisoners, teenagers and test purchases of commercially available e-cigarettes taken between 2014 and 2021 . This is the first case report that describes the toxicological symptoms of vaping ADB-BUTINACA. Results of the DOA test (including testing for amphetamines, methamphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methadone, opioids, cannabis, tricyclic antidepressants) were available within 30 minutes and were all negative. We report a case of an involuntary intoxication of the SCRA ADB-BUTINACA after vaping. There are several pitfalls in the detection of SCRA in samples taken from the patient.
Data availabili
