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coniferous-1 t1_jegj6yp wrote

Reply to comment by RLDSXD in ELI5: If benzodiazepines are CNS depressants, why is it so hard to die from a overdose of them alone? by psychrolute

What is an "RC benzo"?

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DamnThatsLaser t1_jegks6k wrote

"RC" in this context means Research Chemical, these are substances that are usually novel and as such not yet well researched and regulated. They are called research chemicals because you're free to do your own "research on them" since there's no law stopping you from doing it. They often can be ordered from specialized vendors or from another country where manufacturing is done, like India or China.

These can either be actual novel substances in a given class or designer prodrugs that were invented to circumvent existing laws, for the latter 1p-LSD is an example, it's technically not LSD so it was legal but it turns into LSD in your body so it's not only mimicking the effect in another way like NBOMe, but it becomes the real thing. Anyhow, the downside with the other RC drugs is that there's usually little to no reliable scientific information about toxicity and other long term effects.

Benzos which this thread is about is a class of depressant drugs. But I guess you knew that already. I don't think they're very popular over here in Germany though.

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parks_canada t1_jegl34r wrote

RC stands for research chemical, and sometimes they're called designer drugs. Really it refers to any chemical that isn't well studied and understood, but typically when people talk about RCs they're referring to drugs that aren't federally scheduled, and which fall into a legal grey area in many cases (allowing them to be sold on the open market). A lot of these are analogues of scheduled drugs, for example:

  • Clonazolam ("CLAM"), an analogue of clonazepam (Klonopin)
  • 1P-LSD, an analogue of LSD
  • MDMC, an analogue of MDMA
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coniferous-1 t1_jeglinv wrote

Informative, thank you.

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PK1312 t1_jegnhlb wrote

one little addition because i think the chemistry is cool- 1P-LSD is also a prodrug of LSD, meaning it turns into actual LSD inside your body, which is neat. It's like psilocybin in mushrooms- psilocybin by itself is not psychoactive, but in the acidic conditions of the stomach it turns into psilocin- the thing that actually makes you trip.

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