AMB-FUBINACA (also known as FUB-AMB and MMB-FUBINACA) is an

indazole Indazole, also called isoindazole, is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound. This bicyclic compound consists of the fusion of benzene and pyrazole. Indazole is an amphoteric molecule which can be protonated to an indazolium cation or deproton ...

-based

synthetic cannabinoid Synthetic cannabinoids are a class of designer drug molecules that bind to the same receptors to which cannabinoids ( THC, CBD and many others) in cannabis plants attach. These novel psychoactive substances should not be confused with synthe ...

that is a potent

agonist An agonist is a chemical that activates a receptor to produce a biological response. Receptors are cellular proteins whose activation causes the cell to modify what it is currently doing. In contrast, an antagonist blocks the action of the ag ...

for the

cannabinoid receptor Cannabinoid receptors, located throughout the body, are part of the endocannabinoid system a class of cell membrane receptors in the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily. As is typical of G protein-coupled receptors, the cannabinoid recep ...

s, with ''K''_i values of 10.04 nM at CB₁ and 0.786 nM at CB₂ and EC₅₀ values of 0.5433 nM at CB₁ and 0.1278 nM at CB₂, and has been sold online as a

designer drug A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. D ...

. It was originally developed by Pfizer which described the compound in a patent in 2009, but was later abandoned and never tested on humans. AMB-FUBINACA was the most common synthetic cannabinoid identified in drug seizures by the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

in 2017 and the first half of 2018.

Mass casualties

On July 12, 2016, the New York City Emergency Medical Services responded to a "mass casualty event" in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, where 33 people ranging in age from 25 to 59 years old were adversely affected by the drug. 18 were hospitalized. All of the victims were described by-standers as “zombielike” and the cause was attributed to use of AMB-FUBINACA as the demethylated metabolite was found in the blood and urine of eight of the hospitalized patients that had been sent for testing by the DEA. Screening for the more usual drugs of abuse was negative in all 8 patients. AMB-FUBINACA itself was found in a sample from the product smoked by another patient. The metabolite was identified after 10 days and the AMB-FUBINACA was only confirmed 17 days after the incident. Around 60 deaths in New Zealand were attributed to either AMB-FUBINACA or a related compound

5F-ADB 5F-ADB (also known as 5F-MDMB-PINACA) is an indazole-based synthetic cannabinoid from the indazole-3-carboxamide family, which has been used as an active ingredient in synthetic cannabis products and has been sold online as a designer drug. 5F-AD ...

during 2017–2018, with tested products containing between 32 mg/g and 400 mg/g of the active ingredient, between 2x to 25x stronger than the product involved in the mass casualty event in New York a year earlier.

Legal status

In the United States, AMB-FUBINACA is a Schedule I Controlled Substance. Prior to being scheduled at the federal level, the state of Louisiana banned AMB-FUBINACA through an emergency rule after it was detected in a synthetic cannabis product called "Train Wreck 2" which had been linked to adverse events and seizures on 3 June 2014. Sweden's public health agency suggested classifying AMB-FUBINACA as a hazardous substance on November 10, 2014.

References

{{Cannabinoids Cannabinoids Designer drugs Fluoroarenes Indazolecarboxamides

Mass casualties

Legal status

See also

References