XLR-11, PB-22, AB-FUBINACA, MAB-CHMINACA, 5F-AMB. These are the cryptic and sometimes unpronounceable names of the most dangerous drugs you’ve never heard of. They are responsible for kidney injury, psychosis, seizures, coma and death.

For instance, AB-FUBINACA was responsible for a spate of recent poisonings at Wesleyan University. And MAB-CHMINACA was associated with more than 100 hospitalizations in Baton Rouge. Neither of these drugs were known to the scientific community until late last year.

These drugs are synthetic cannabinoids – several of the hundreds that have been identified as new “designer drugs” in the past five years. More than 150 were reported in 2013 alone, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). And police, doctors, scientists and lawmakers are all struggling to identify these new drugs as they hit the streets.

What are synthetic cannabinoids?

Synthetic cannabinoids are molecules designed to mimic the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Like THC, these synthetic cannabinoids target the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R) in the brain, which is responsible for the psychoactive effects of THC in cannabis.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/labs-make-new-synthetic-cannabinoids/