by Craig Olson
This author has spent years studying this problem, reading books, journal articles, and articles on the Internet, particulary articles from the National Library of Medicine. There is an enormous number of drugs of abuse, and the list is getting longer every year. One of the reasons for this is that there are scientists like Alexander Shulgin who are creating new drugs all the time. Shulgin has been like Dr. Frankenstein, creating monsters in the name of medical research. Nevertheless Shulgin has made valuable contributions in his book, PIHKAL. This unusual acronym refers to phenylethylamines. Pheneylethylamines is a huge class of hallucinogenic substances, although not all phenylethylamines are hallucinogenic. Dopamine is even a valuable substance. For information on DMPEA, a notorious but controversial phenylethylamine, click on this link to another page in this website.

Mescaline
Mescaline is an old drug which comes from the peyote cactus. This drug has been studied by many scientists for many years. In 1940 Stockings noted that it produced symptoms similar to those seen in schizophrenia. This view was later endorsed by Osmond, Smythies, and Harely-Mason in 1952 and shortly afterwards by Hoffer. link to more info

AGGRESSION
A 1979 report by Sbordone et al found "severe aggression in rats induced by mescaline but not other hallucinogens". They studied LSD, psilocin, DMT, DMPEA, and 5-OHDA (as well as mescaline). Psilocin, DMT, and DMPEA "decreased the amount and intensity of fighting". DMPEA was described as a "mescaline analog". More information on DMPEA can be found on the Metabolism page.

CATECHOLAMINES
Many drugs of abuse have chemical structures very similar to catcholamines. Thes substance are found naturaly in the brain and often function as neurotransmitters. This similarity is not a coincidence. The drug of abuse will often interfere with the natural workings of a neurotransmitter, as in the cases of amphetamine and cocaine. Amphetamine closely resembles dopamine except that amphetamine is more properly called a phenylethylamine than a catecholamine. Amphetamine has a methyl group that is lacking in dopamine. Dopamine comes from DOPA, which, in turn, comes from tyrosine (an amino acid).