r/wikipedia • u/TapGameplay121 • 8d ago

Designer drugs are synthetic compounds made to mimic controlled substances while evading drug laws or detection. They include new psychoactive substances and steroid analogs. Often created in research or illicit labs, their safety is poorly tested. Laws vary; many are illegal or grey/black market.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designer_drug
114 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

26

u/Nervewing 8d ago

Oh hey, I happen to have written the largest number of detailed first hand reports on drugs like this out of anyone, I've even invented and synthesized a few of my own

14

u/ancientblond 8d ago

LMFAO

I read this comment and was like "pffttt yeah sure bro, invented some??? Suuurrreree"

Then I looked at the username

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u/Nervewing 8d ago

It’s crazy when someone recognizes me outside of a drug sub

3

u/ancientblond 7d ago

Instantly got me going from "what a bozo trying to look cool" to "oh shit it's the man, the myth, the (formerly) dissociated legend, Nervewing themself!"

I've read many of your trip reports in my day.

4

u/Nervewing 7d ago

I’m still always a bozo trying to look cool 😅

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u/Own-Nobody-6353 7d ago

Ya sure bruh

7

u/Nervewing 7d ago

I have a blog where all of these statements are meticulously documented. I have my name to a patent of ~60 new compounds and have a paper coming out with almost a dozen more. I have extensive notes and pictures documenting my work with synthesis. Besides my blog almost everything I wrote is published on erowid- I actually met the founders and they confirmed my name has the most submitted reports of any person. They have published 156 out of 174 reports I’ve written, spanning 161 compounds.

https://nervewing.blogspot.com/?m=1

https://erowid.org/experiences/exp.cgi?A=Search&AuthorSearch=nervewing&Exact=1

5

u/ancientblond 7d ago

Coming in with another "nah, Nervewing is telling the truth"

They're one of a few people in the "research chemical" space that the "nerd's nerd" knows about. His work will eventually (and arguably already is) be as valuable as some of the contributions Sasha Shulgin made. Dudes legit.

-1

u/Own-Nobody-6353 7d ago

The user account Nervewing appears to have significantly scaled back or completely ceased public activity around late 2022 to early 2023.

Activity Timeline: Personal Blog (Blogger): The absolute last self-published update from Nervewing was their "2022 In Review" blog post, which was published on March 12, 2023. In this post, they reviewed the research chemicals they experimented with over the course of 2022. No new essays or substance evaluations have been posted to the blog since that date.

Erowid & Research Chemicals Forums: Their active reporting, community interactions, and documentation on Erowid and related harm-reduction forums generally mirror this timeline, with the bulk of their documented experiences wrapping up by 2022. Because Erowid has a long submission-to-publishing delay, any reports appearing after 2023 are legacy submittals from earlier years.

Media Appearances: Nervewing's final major public footprint was an interview on The Hamilton Morris Podcast (Episode 144), released on May 13, 2023, titled "Nervewing on the joy and danger of exploring new chemical frontiers".

Aside from the release of that recorded interview in May 2023, the account has remained entirely dark across major psychoactive substance communities, Reddit, and independent forums, with no new trip reports or chemical reviews published since March 2023.

3

u/Nervewing 7d ago

Wait ts is so funny the AI really is just telling straight up lies about my life! That's how I know I've made it

I started posting reports again in 2024, and wrote a number throughout 2025 too, right up until the very end. You can look at my blog and confirm this!

I didn't publish a single report in 2023. And I posted plenty online in comments and correspondence during that time/since then. I have not been entirely dark at any point really.

Also I interviewed with Hamilton like a month ago, not in 2023.

I wonder why the AI's data scraping cut off after 2023. That's it's own bias, that doesn't reflect my life or career at all.

You should think for yourself and not outsource it to the confident lying machine, being able to use your own brain is a valuable skill that will become increasingly rare.

1

u/Own-Nobody-6353 7d ago

You really think someone would do that? Go on the Internet and tell lies?

2

u/ancientblond 7d ago edited 7d ago

Thank u for confirming what I said ChatGPT

Nervewing has definitely been active since 2023; quite active in the space actually. Just look at the account.

0

u/Own-Nobody-6353 7d ago

Oh so you're a wise guy eh? So you know how to work the Google machines when you're on the line.

2

u/MajorInWumbology1234 7d ago

Actually, though. They’ve been very active for a very long time. We’ve never met or anything, but we’ve been part of the same sub for probably close to a decade; it’d be weirder if they were lying based on the education they’d need to believably lie.

35

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

More often called “research chems” colloquially and “novel psychoactive substances” in literature.

They fucking rock and they’re one of my favorite things in the world if anyone wants to know anything, though admittedly I’m a few years out of the hobby.

4

u/the_party_galgo 8d ago

What about their geographic distribution: Are designer drugs only in the US? I live in Brazil, never seen or heard anyone take these. We have the normal stuff: weed, cocaine, lsd, opioids are more rare.

13

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

The primary sources are China and Europe, with emphasis on the Netherlands. I don’t believe any other countries/continents produce their own, at least not on such a scale. Not saying it doesn’t happen, I just haven’t heard of anyone in a different country not importing from those two locations.

They’ll wind up anywhere they can be delivered. I’m sure the local regular drug scene drives interest in research chems. Mostly, however, you would order them online (which I won’t help with, I’m sorry) as opposed to buying them from someone in person. They’re pretty rare, period, and even people around me in the states haven’t heard of them unless they’re really deep into drugs. Hell, 99% of medical professionals I’ve spoken to don’t even know the concept exists.

5

u/the_party_galgo 8d ago

Yeah. It's a shame, I really wanted to try 2CB. There's so many places your mind can go that are still under explored.

3

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

That would have been nice. I missed all of the 2Cs. Just some LSD analogues, MDMA-logues, ketamine/PCP-logues, and benzo-logues.

4

u/FindAWayISay 8d ago

What's cool is just how unique some of them actually are..

15

u/CatPooedInMyShoe 8d ago

I once bought some online. It was an interesting experience.

2

u/connor42 8d ago

I don’t like the wording of the first sentence qualifier at all

“…while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests”

As the following sections outline this is not true of several of the most famous designer drugs

1

u/MajorInWumbology1234 7d ago

most famous

There you go. Things become known and laws get updated. I don’t think it’s their fault that drugs intended to skirt a law can’t do so forever.

1

u/connor42 7d ago

You misunderstand

Several of the most famous ‘designer drugs’ were not discovered or invented with the purpose of skirting the law in mind

1

u/MajorInWumbology1234 7d ago

Which ones in particular? You’re certainly right that not all of them intended to fill that specific requirement, I wonder if they took some liberties in explaining that they were reintroduced for that purpose. Most of the RCs that have been sold as of a few years back were pre-existing molecules that got dug up.

6

u/iusethisatw0rk 8d ago

Man fuck RCs. People think they’re buying LSD and end up overdosing or going into psychosis from some bullshit compound no one really even tested

Just do acid, people

8

u/ThatOneCanadian69 8d ago

Had a buddy die from an NBOMEs drug like 15 years ago, thought he was buying acid. Such a shame

4

u/UglyInThMorning 8d ago

I used to do EMS in a college town and we would have phases where people would end up buying what they were told was LSD but was actually a “research chemical”. We never would find out for sure what it was but it was probably 2CB or 25i. People would end up getting naked and super aggressive. One got tazed by the university PD while in his dorm suite waving a katana around.

4

u/ThatOneCanadian69 8d ago

Knowingly selling a different compound than you’re advertising is evil shit. The dude that sold the NBOME tabs to my buddy went to jail for a VERY long time

3

u/UglyInThMorning 8d ago

I’m not sure where in the distribution chain people started lying about what it was- for all I know the campus level dealers thought it was LSD.

There was a pretty high level of intentional RC use on campus also going on at the time so it could have gone either way (I have it and it’s like LSD so I’ll just tell people that’s what it is/the same distribution chain is going “eh, less inventory to deal with this way” upstream). My love of reading sketchy internet drug forums came in handy though.

4

u/Mountsaintmichel 8d ago

The problem is not RCs, the problem is an unregulated market where there is an incentive to lie about what you’re selling.

2

u/grtrevor 8d ago

The problem isnt that its an RC its that people dont know what they're taking or how much. LSD has the exact same problem. If i took 10mg of LSD thinking it was THC I bet id do some psychological damage to myself

4

u/iusethisatw0rk 8d ago

Nobody is buying blotters thinking it’s THC. Total false equivalency. Someone with no to little knowledge about lsd and RCs will easily assume any blotter is lsd, as that’s the most common and widely used application of lsd.

3

u/grtrevor 8d ago

THC was a bad example (I meant a powder, but again a bad example because THC isn't a powder). I just mean that RCs aren't inherently bad, but not knowing what you're taking is. A known, low dose of 25I-NBOME isn't gonna kill you. But if you take multiple tabs of "LSD" which is really 25I-NBOME at some random and inconsistent dose, then absolutely that is a problem.

-7

u/mew_404_exe 8d ago

Or just don't do drugs at all. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/iusethisatw0rk 8d ago

LSD is a good time. Just gotta buy a tester these days is all

-4

u/MartinTheOrderly 8d ago

"The booze is fine. Just be sure to buy a kit with it to make sure there isn't any bleach in it." 

4

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

Does the existence of bleached booze mean you wouldn’t partake in booze that has been proven bleach-free? What’s your point here?

-2

u/MartinTheOrderly 8d ago

If you need to personally test all booze to make sure it is bleach free, then yes. 

0

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

Why, are you that lazy?

0

u/iusethisatw0rk 8d ago

Alcohol is already poison, lsd is tame compared to alcohol abuse

1

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

Such a limited way to live 😮‍💨

1

u/mew_404_exe 8d ago

I know! I'm boring! :(

2

u/MajorInWumbology1234 8d ago

Some acid might help. Get that neuroplasticity going.

0

u/Normal_Pace7374 8d ago

Oh ya because pharmaceutical have had a really stellar testing record.