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Comment by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF | Hacker News Reader

What did you find to be misleading about the headline? I'm only asking because it made me think of a black-market-sold drug ("illicit drug") that was recently encountered and recognized as distinctly different ("new"; "has been discovered") from other current-market drugs, which seems to match the description you gave of the article.

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The headline should have said 'identified'.

> Chemical X could only be something called 2’-fluoro-2-oxo-phenylcyclohexylethylamine. And they had never seen this compound before.

But it was previously discovered and named.

You don't need to name chemical substances. The structure is the name.

Not the OP, but first is the ambiguity introduced by "discovered" in regard to a man-made thing. One must ask if the writer intended "invented". In which case, how does one invent a drug that is already regulated or outlawed?

Or did the writer mean that the chemist invented a street drug which was then outlawed?

Or does it mean a known drug was outlawed and found for the first time by authorities within the country that outlawed it? That makes sense, but sounds like "Dog Bites Man".

Did not anticipate a detailed article on chemical sleuthing.

"Chemists identify novel drug already in circulation"

How can a substance be illicit if it was just discovered?

They’re default banned, in most Australian states.

https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/new-psychoactive-substances/

>> In Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria there is now a ‘blanket ban’ on possessing or selling any substance that has a psychoactive effect other than alcohol, tobacco and food.

>and food

Perfect, so bake it into cookies.

I'm assuming that the law is written such that it applies to ingredients which are both psychoactive and have no reasonable culinary value.

so sodium benzoate is okay (no psychoactive effect) and hazelnut is okay (use as a flavoring), but random alkaloids wouldn't.

buzzkill law, though.

Except for Kava which has recently been legalised. There's even a Kava company listed on the ASX! It just goes to show that when money talks, politicians listen.

https://fijikava.com/

Analog laws in most Australian states make these research chemicals banned-by-default.

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