Prodrugs: pills your body converts into an illicit drug can evade detection, but we don't know how big the problem is
Prodrugs are substances that can only cause an effect after being broken down by enzymes in the digestive system or other chemical reactions in the body.
- Prodrugs are substances that can only cause an effect after being broken down by enzymes in the digestive system or other chemical reactions in the body.
- Most illicit drugs work by interacting with specific brain cell receptors, stimulating or blocking the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters.
- They last for a short time before being transformed into inactive or less active chemicals, which are then eliminated from the body, usually in urine.
- For prodrugs, however, a small part of the molecule needs to be removed or substituted before it can act on those receptors.
Hard to detect
- A major problem with prodrugs is they are difficult to detect.
- Police forces need reference samples to compare the drug with, or advanced equipment to discover its molecular structure.
- It also explains why many have only appeared in police reports in the past decade.
- For biological samples (such as blood, urine or saliva), there is another difficulty.