Health
The Fast-Changing Chemistry of New, Dangerous Drugs
Illicit labs are creating new synthetic drugs at breakneck speed. Dangerous, untested compounds are reaching users long before health agencies know they exist. Older drugs are regularly modified to create novel threats. Ecstasy is a prime example.
The party drug MDMA has been illegal since 1985. Its molecular structure can be drawn like this:
But what if you could add one atom to this molecule to change both the experience of taking the drug and its legal status?
You can. A single oxygen atom changes the molecule to methylone, which provides an Ecstasy-like euphoria.
This simple change had a profound consequence. When methylone reached the U.S. market in 2010 the drug could be sold legally in corner stores and smoke shops as “bath salts.”
But methylone wasn’t the end of the story. Illicit chemists now use methylone’s structure as a template for modern-day alchemy. New drug laws push them to invent new variants, which emerge in the illicit drug market with untested potencies and effects — a vicious cycle that has been impossible to contain.
These chemists are located in unregulated labs around the globe, from big enterprises in China and India that produce drugs and their precursor compounds in huge volumes, to single-person and small domestic operations that cut and package drugs for retail sale. Some of the most-used drugs, such as fentanyl, are mixed in Mexico and exported north.
Waves of Bath Salts
Methylone was an early example of a class of drugs known as synthetic cathinones, which continue to proliferate.
Beginning in 2010, emergency rooms began seeing agitated patients who were violent, paranoid and psychotic after ingesting synthetic cathinones sold as bath salts. Poison control centers received a few hundred calls about the drugs in 2010. The following year had over 6,000 calls.
When methylone was finally banned in 2011, unregulated chemists simply tweaked the molecule to evade the ban, creating new drug formulas. The Drug Enforcement Administration noted in 2019 that “as one synthetic cathinone is controlled, another unscheduled synthetic cathinone appears in the recreational drug market.”
Examining the drug on a molecular level shows how illicit chemists try to increase potency and heighten the effect in a user’s brain.
As cathinone molecules become more potent, they also become more addictive. “Because they hijack the dopamine system in the brain — the salience and reward system in the brain — they’re going to be extremely addictive,” said Dr. Michael Baumann, director of the Designer Drug Research Unit of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “There’s a reason why chemists would design these.”
Experts confirmed that the molecules described in this article are well known among illicit chemists, who have moved on to newer structures. “These are not rudimentary chemists,” Dr. Baumann said. “They’re actually ahead of us.”
Nitazenes, the ‘Frankenstein Opioids’
Another class of drugs has been following a similar pattern. When China banned all variants of fentanyl in 2019, illicit chemists began to research non-fentanyl opioids and rediscovered nitazenes, drugs developed in the 1950s as alternatives to morphine but never approved for medical use. Chemists modify the molecules — which are more complex than cathinones — in similar ways to increase potency.
“This is trial and error,” said Dr. Alex Krotulski, director of the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education, of the efforts. “They’re pushing the envelope to make more and more potent drugs.”
By the end of 2024, at least 22 nitazene molecules had been identified. New variants are prized because of their inexpensive production costs, high potency and vague legal status, according to a 2023 paper.
Ohio’s attorney general was referring to nitazenes when he warned that “Frankenstein opioids are even more lethal than the drugs already responsible for so many overdose deaths.”
China banned nitazenes in July 2025, a move that may cause production to shift to other countries. In the meantime, illicit chemists searching through patents and research papers may stumble on another class of legal molecules to tweak and modify.
“It’s so much more dangerous today, the drugs are so much more potent,” said George W. Hime, assistant director of toxicology at the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner. “Someone out there is playing chemistry.”
“Our brains are so pharmaceutically inclined,” he said. “This fits into the model of pills.”
At the same time, tDCS could also challenge the current, pill-centric paradigm, by pushing psychiatrists to go beyond old notions of serotonin deficiencies and chemical imbalances, and to think more broadly about getting the brain unstuck. The two treatments together, research suggests may work together to nudge the brain toward a more plastic, activated state to help people overcome old patterns.
For instance, Dr. Somayya Kajee, a psychiatrist in Norwich, England, has found that tDCS helped some of her patients taper off an antidepressant or avoid having to start on another one. She added she has successfully used Flow to treat her neurodivergent patients who were taking medication for A.D.H.D. or autism, and who did not want to add on an S.S.R.I.
Ms. Davies started tDCS a few weeks after increasing her Prozac dosage. When she first put the headset on for 30 minutes, the recommended interval, she recalled feeling only a slight tingling — a “spicy sensation,” similar to having your hair bleached, as a participant in a clinical trial put it.
But within a few days, something shifted for Ms. Davies. She felt clearer, she said. The harsh voice in her head quieted. It was as if the world was in color again.
She said she could not say for sure what made the difference — the tDCS, delayed effects of the antidepressant, the passage of time or some combination — but “whatever it was helped to make me think, ‘Actually, maybe I can do this,’” she said. For the first time, she looked forward to giving her baby a bath.
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It’s well-known that ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are not good for overall health — but new research has uncovered further evidence that this diet could negatively impact the brain.
The study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia by the Alzheimer’s Association, revealed that UPFs are linked to more than 30 adverse health outcomes, including several dementia risk factors, like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Researchers from Australia’s Monash University analyzed more than 2,000 dementia-free Australian adults between the ages of 40 and 70, comparing their diets to cognitive function.
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They found that each 10% increase in UPF intake was associated with lower attention scores and higher dementia risk, regardless of whether the adults typically followed a healthy diet, like the Mediterranean diet.
There was no significant link found between UPF consumption and memory.
Each 10% increase in ultraprocessed food intake was associated with lower attention scores and higher dementia risk, the study found. (iStock)
By identifying food processing as a contributor to poorer cognition, the study “supports the need to refine dietary guidelines,” the researchers concluded.
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As the data was self-reported, this could pose a limitation to the strength of the findings, the team noted.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Daniel Amen, a California-based psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, discussed how diet has a “powerful impact” on the brain.
“[The brain] uses about 20% of the calories you consume, so the quality of those calories matters,” Dr. Daniel Amen told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“Your brain is an energy-hungry organ,” he said. “It uses about 20% of the calories you consume, so the quality of those calories matters.”
Food is either “medicine or poison,” according to the doctor, who called out ultraprocessed foods like packaged snacks, soft drinks and ready-made meals that tend to be higher in sugar, unhealthy fats, additives and low-quality ingredients.
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These foods can promote inflammation, insulin resistance, poor blood flow and oxidative stress, all of which are “bad for the brain,” according to Amen.
The brain expert noted that the study revealed even a 10% increase in ultraprocessed food intake – equivalent to roughly a pack of chips per day – was linked to a “measurable drop in attention, even when people had otherwise healthy diets.”
About one package of chips per day can result in cognition changes, according to the study findings. (iStock)
“Attention is the gateway to learning, memory, decision-making and problem-solving,” Amen said. “If you can’t focus, you can’t fully encode information.”
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The “big takeaway,” according to the doctor, is to “love foods that love you back.”
“You may love the taste of chips, cookies and candy, but they don’t love you (or your brain) back,” he said. “Ultraprocessed foods may claim to be sugar-free, low-carb or keto-friendly, but researchers noted that ultraprocessing can destroy the natural structure of food – and can introduce additives or processing chemicals that may affect cognition.”
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Amen suggests sticking to real food that grows on plants or animals, instead of food “made in plants.”
“Build meals around colorful vegetables and fruits, clean protein, healthy fats, nuts, seeds and high-fiber carbohydrates,” he recommended. “Start by replacing one ultraprocessed food per day with a brain-healthy option.”
That might mean swapping out chips for nuts, soda for water or unsweetened green tea, and packaged sweets for berries. “Small choices done consistently can change your brain and your life,” the doctor emphasized.
As UPFs have been shown to worsen several dementia risk factors, Amen stressed that people at risk of cognitive decline should “get serious about prevention as early as possible.”
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“If you have a family history of dementia, memory concerns, diabetes, high blood pressure or weight issues, your diet is not a side issue – it’s a primary brain-health intervention,” Amen said.
“Remember, you’re not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better, and it starts with the next bite.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
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