Legal highs...?

[alphacat]

I think that one idea behind that mentality ("organic don't panic") is that we've had hundreds of thousands of years to figure out whether or not something you ingest has any potential long term effects worth knowing about, unlike new man-made ones where there's this idea you might suddenly start turning nuclear green or your kids will have chromosomal damage... people still remember shit like the horror of Thalidomide babies and don't care to repeat it, whether the drug's being taken recreationally or medically.

The reality of the situation is not so clear cut. Granted, most naturals do have the benefit of lots and lots of road testing and anecdotal findings behind them, but if the synthetic's an analog of a natural I don't think that the distinction is so hard and fast. The other thing is that synthetics are usually studied/documented in sort of a reductionist method when IMO a great deal about the 'drug experience' has to be contextualized as part of a larger systemic whole... set & setting and all that.