In an easily missed and poorly announced technical change to Controlled Drug Laws in Switzerland, all carbamates of controlled substances are now also considered controlled. Unlike regular updates that simply add new substances or areas of chemical space, this subtly alters the definition of how all existing controlled substances in Switzerland are defined as controlled.
Switzerland have added carbamates to the list of variations/derivatives under control within the Verordnung des EDI über die Verzeichnisse der Betäubungsmittel, psychotropen Stoffe, Vorläuferstoffe und Hilfschemikalien (Regulation of EDI over the lists of narcotics, psychotropic substances, precursors and auxiliary chemicals). This affects items in directories A,B,C,D and E (named substances and generics)
In an unusual move, not previously seen in any other country, Switzerland has now controlled all carbamates of named controlled substances. Previously all ethers, ester, salts and stereoisomers of named controlled substances were also controlled – inline with international conventions and other countries.
Carbamates are a class of amine protecting groups that are widely used in organic synthesis. They are particularly useful in multi-step reactions due to their ability to be selectively added and removed under mild conditions. In this case it means a carbamate of a controlled substance could easily be reacted into the controlled substance.
This means that in Switzerland, a listed controlled substance (or area of controlled chemical space) when attached to other chemistry via a carbamate group (see above) will make the entire molecule controlled under controlled drugs laws.
This affects all substances in directories A,B,C,D and E, so also includes generic statements, used extensively in Switzerland, which controls areas of chemical space.
Previously, we have only seen carbamates controlled in very specific examples, such as the USA, where the Drug Enforcement Agency also controls carbamates of 4-piperidone, a commonly used drug precursor chemical.
With the USA and now Switzerland now controlling carbamates, could this be the start of a wider trend to control carbamates of controlled substances by default?
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