OSEA Safety Blog

Synthetic drugs, where did these come from and when? Synthetic drugs are those that are comprised of at least one human made chemical. For example, do you recall a story a few years back of a man who was suspected of taking “bath salts” where he ended up chasing a man and cannibalized him. Bath salts, spice and synthetic marijuana are all examples of synthetic drugs but when you look at a book definition of “synthetic drugs” it defines them as those that are comprised, in whole or part, of man-made chemicals. Again, however, the trend is to use the term synthetic drugs when referring to the new designer (as they call them) drugs, such as bath salts. Given the above book definition though, methamphetamine and MDMA (aka ecstasy or molly) which I personally hadn’t heard of until a young female pop singer who rides a big ball in a video and is the daughter of another famous singer but I will not name, had discussed it in one of her interviews, are technically synthetic drugs because they are made entirely from chemicals.

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioid painkillers are now the leading cause of overdose deaths nationwide, killing more than 21,000 people last year, according to provisional CDC data.

“Shocking numbers,” epidemiologist Daniel Ciccarone of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine told BuzzFeed News. “I see only growing problems in my field work,” he added, with fentanyl becoming the new normal for heroin buyers in places like Chicago and Charleston, West Virginia. Here is the scariest part of all, some of these drugs you can purchase, on the internet, legally and really cheap. It is important to talk to your family, friends and most importantly your children about all types of drugs and the dangers they bring to those who use them.