The easily available ‘‘legal highs’’, which are products containing psychoactive substances, such as
cathinones, piperazines and synthetic cannabinoids, are abused by adolescents in Poland and in the
world as alternatives to classic drugs, such as amphetamines or marijuana. The majority of these
potentially dangerous substances are still legal and they are associated with a risk of severe poisoning or
even death, and provide new challenges in clinical and forensic toxicological practice.
Investigations in the field of ‘‘designer drugs’’ may be well illustrated by the case of a suicide of a 21-
year old male who ingested a specified dose of a preparation called ‘‘Amphi-bi-a’’ that contains bk-MBDB,
chemically 2-methylamino-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl) butan-1-one, which belongs to the cathinone
group, as a synthetic euphoric empathogen and psychoactive stimulant that is chemically similar to
MDMA. It is one of more common components of ‘‘legal highs’’ examined in Poland and other countries.
The documentation of the case includes a clinical assessment of the patient’s health status performed
during his almost 4-h hospitalization before death, autopsy and histological examinations supported by
toxicological findings revealing bk-MBDB at extremely high concentrations (at 20 mg/l in the blood and
33 mg/kg in the liver); hence, this body of evidence contributes to knowledge in the field of ‘‘designer
drugs’’.
Inventions of designers of new psychoactive xenobiotics, which are much in demand, especially in
view of the dynamic Internet marketing, which drums up narcobusiness, must be balanced by a national
strategy developed by medical, legal and educational circles in the modern civilized world in order to
prevent the spreading of the phenomenon.