In the early 1980s a group of young people who thought they were taking a "new heroin" ingested what was actually a poison that destroys brain cells. As a result, the victims were permanently damaged by the crippling symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The toxic substance that these young people took was a designer drug, a term used to define a compound that closely resembles but does not replicate the chemical structure of either controlled prescription drugs or illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine. Designer Drugs explains the chemical nature and the dangers of these deadly analogs, which are often manufactured in makeshift laboratories by amateur chemists lacking both the desire and the expertise to guarantee their purity or predict their side effects. The book also discusses patterns of abuse and the efforts of law-enforcement officials to curb the manufacture and distribution of these potentially lethal concoctions.