You mentioned that you mix chemical compounds, and that these can result in drugs. Have you ever discovered a compound

Question: You mentioned that you mix chemical compounds, and that these can result in drugs. Have you ever discovered a compound that would be similar to any recreational drug (cocaine, cannabis, etc)?
- Keywords:
  chemical,
  drug,
  recreational drug
Asked by anon-256590 to James_the_Scientist on 9 Jun 2020.
- James Beswick answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  Great question Miguel! I have not been trying to make illegal recreational drugs like the ones you mentioned (I promise!). Generally chemicals with a similar structure tend to have a similar biological effect – a great example of this is the different ‘penicillin’ based antibiotics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin). They all have a very similar looking ‘core structure’ but all are slightly different – though they do a similar job. None of the molecules I have made are similar in structure to any illegal recreational drugs – so I wouldn’t expect them to have similar effects in the human body.

Question: You mentioned that you mix chemical compounds, and that these can result in drugs. Have you ever discovered a compound that would be similar to any recreational drug (cocaine, cannabis, etc)?