Well understood also. It's not like they're doing cutting edge pharmaceutical drug research that takes mega scientists and billions in funding and very precise enzyme targeting, etc.
They mostly iterate on known drugs to make their making cheaper / more addictive. And they can easily test on junkies (I presume).
The "research chemical" community, out of China, SE Asia, Israel, and Europe, is pretty much doing cutting edge pharmaceutical drug research -- the point being to produce "interesting" club drugs while staying ahead of regulation. Not spending billions, but doing fairly reasonable drug discovery, synthesis, and testing.
Of course, sometimes they get it wrong, and you end up with face flesh eating humans in Florida.
Thanks. Just to be clear, toxicology is pending. My gut says this is mental illness, not drugs, based on the perp's record.
Also, I don't own a TV, don't watch TV, and get my news from friends and NPR. So I don't generally see much of this news-of-the-wierd. Thankfully, it appears.
I supplement my lack of TV news with a once-or-twice-daily visit to Drudge. It compresses all the utter lunacy down to one appropriately-ugly page and keeps me a couple days ahead of the GOP talking points at the same time.
I disagree. You're focusing on recreational drugs, but the performance drug market might be smaller but significantly richer.
During years EPO wasn't detectable by anti-doping testing. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it requires cutting edge pharmaceutical drug research to avoid detection.
But what about, well, drugs? Don't drug cartels employ chemists to refine old drugs and develop "better" ones?