Background on Piperazines

Piperazines

"Piperazines have been described as ‘failed pharmaceuticals’, as some had been evaluated as potential therapeutic agents by pharmaceutical companies but never brought to the market.⁵⁵ While the best known piperazine that has been used as a new psychoactive substance is 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP), during the last decade other compounds such as 1-(3-chlorophenyl) piperazine (mCPP), 1-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl) piperazine (TFMPP) and, to a lesser extent, 1-Benzyl-4-methyl-piperazine (MBZP) and 1-(4-Fluorophenyl)piperazine (pFPP) have been identified on the market.⁵⁶
"BZP was initially developed as a potential antidepressant drug, but was found to have similar properties to amphetamine and therefore liable to abuse. In the 1980s, it was used in Hungary to manufacture piberaline, a substance marketed as an antidepressant, but later withdrawn.57 In the late 1990s, BZP emerged in New Zealand as a ‘legal alternative’ for MDMA and methamphetamine.⁵⁸ In Europe, its use was first reported in Sweden in 1999, but it only became widespread as a NPS from 2004 onwards until controls over the substance were introduced in 2008, in the European Union.⁵⁹
"MCPP, reportedly more widespread than BZP in some regions of the world,⁶⁰ was developed during the late 1970s and is used as an intermediate in the manufacture of several antidepressants, e.g. trazodone and nefazodone.⁶¹ TFMPP is almost always seen in combination with BZP to produce the entactogenic⁶² effects of MDMA.⁶³
"Neither BZP nor any other piperazines are under international control, although several (BZP, TFMPP, mCPP, MDBP) were pre-reviewed by the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence in 2012. Several countries have introduced national control measures over piperazines."