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Re:Testing Legal Highs Would Save Lives by Alex3917 on Saturday November 29, 2014 @05:42PM (#8675342)
The article isn't talking about running clinical trials, it's talking about making GCMS equipment and the like available.
Re:Testing Legal Highs Would Save Lives by refurb on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:46PM (#8675910)
That would help stop people from taking things that are adulterated, but I'd be concerned about the toxicity of the pure drugs as well.

A great example of what can happen is Fen-Phen, the diet drug that was taken off the market a while back. The drug fenfluramine also activates the 5-HT2B receptor and causes heart valve damage.

All of these designer drugs out there could certainly have off-target effects that would never be noticed unless a clinical trial was run (even then maybe not!) or unless enough users have enough problems that it's noticed (MPTP is great example).