 By pouring over those medical journals, and reading about the drugs that never made it to FDA approval, the synthetic drug manufacturer is provided with a nearly endless list of chemicals that can be manufactured and sold legally.  These drugs have not been evaluated for their effects on humans and are often manufactured in less than ideal circumstances by people who have limited knowledge of chemistry and human physiology. 
Regardless of your belief in an individual’s right to chose what goes into his/her own body, you need to know two absolute facts when it comes to synthetic drugs.  1. In an unregulated industry, run by armchair chemists, there are wild variations in the product produced.  These variations exist not only from one product to the next but within the product itself.  Testing shows variations from the manufacturing process of the same synthetic marijuana made by the same manufacturer range from 2 times to 500 times stronger than THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.  2. When you slightly modify a chemical, the effects may also be slightly modified.  In the case of synthetic marijuana, these slight modifications result in hallucinations.
Your brain is filled with chemical receptors, and these receptors are like locks on doors to your feelings and emotions.  Fear, euphoria and basically everything else you feel is triggered by the interaction between chemicals and receptors in your brain.  There are two receptors in the brain termed CD1 and CD2, but although their names are similar, the emotions they unleash are drastically different.  When a chemical bonds with the receptor CD1, a feeling of anxiety and hallucinations are produced while CD2 produces a feeling or relaxation and calmness.   THC bonds with CD2, but synthetically modified THC often binds with CD1, giving rise to news reports of hallucinations caused by the synthetic drug.
Many states are making entire classes of chemicals illegal so that small modifications in the drug cannot circumvent the legislation, but  I am torn in establishing any logic that can be used that would make synthetic drugs illegal, while not having consequences on other items we consume in America.  They are dangerous, so is alcohol.  They have no nutritional purpose, neither does tobacco.  How can we justify their banishment without accepting the consequences of our logic?  Do we simply just pick and choose, or do we endeavor to a higher level of logic?  Is it the government’s responsibility to protect our health at all costs, or our freedom to choose?   At the very least, you should endeavor to know what you’re putting into your body, and I would recommend these synthetic drugs not be on your list of consumables, but you should be able to make the choice for yourself.

In the Texas Legislature, HB126 seeks to require drug screening for applicants and recipients of unemployment benefits.  While the initial guttural reaction to this idea is positive for most conservative thinkers, the concept must be thoroughly examined because it straddles two of the conservative’s most fervently held ideals. 