Operation Web Tryp was a United States

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

operation that ended on July 21, 2004 with the arrests of 10 persons. Its purpose was to investigate web sites suspected of distribution of unscheduled, unregulated

tryptamines Substituted tryptamines, or serotonin analogues, are organic compounds which may be thought of as being derived from tryptamine itself. The molecular structures of all tryptamines contain an indole ring, joined to an amino (NH2) group via an ethy ...

and

phenethylamines Substituted phenethylamines (or simply phenethylamines) are a chemical class of organic compounds that are based upon the phenethylamine structure; the class is composed of all the derivative compounds of phenethylamine which can be formed by ...

of questionable legality. This trade in "

grey market A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term " parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market pr ...

" drugs, which were not explicitly illegal but potentially prosecutable as drug analogs, became known as the "

research chemical Research chemicals are chemical substances used by scientists for medical and scientific research purposes. One characteristic of a research chemical is that it is for laboratory research use only; a research chemical is not intended for human o ...

" trade; a euphemism to suggest that the chemicals were being sold for industrial or academic research rather than human consumption. Five websites were involved in Operation Web Tryp. One of these websites, pondman.nu, was allegedly taking in U.S. $20,000 per week and grossed $700,000 before being shut down. Another, racresearch.com, reportedly grossed $500,000 in 14 months.David McCandless
"Bad Trip for Online Drug Peddlers"
''Wired'' magazine, July 6, 2005 In 2005, a court ruled that

AMT Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

sold by pondman.nu caused the April 2002 death of an 18-year-old man in upstate New York and the site's owner was sentenced to 410 years in prison. The DEA also alleged a product sold by ''americanchemicalsupply.com'' caused the death of a 22-year-old Louisiana man. Fourteen other non-fatal overdose incidents requiring hospitalization were also cited by the DEA. In December 2004, using credit card information provided by the DEA, British police arrested 22 UK residents who had purchased

2C-I 2C-I is a psychedelic phenethylamine of the 2C family. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin and described in his 1991 book '' PiHKAL'' (''Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved''). The drug has been used recreationally as psychedelic and ...

through the seized web sites (Operation Ismene). No one was jailed and most were released without charge. No customers in the United States were known to be arrested.

Legality

Although these chemicals were not yet scheduled, a long shadow was cast on their legality by the 1986

Federal Analog Act The Federal Analogue Act, , is a section of the United States Controlled Substances Act passed in 1986 which allows any chemical "substantially similar" to a controlled substance listed in Controlled Substances Act#Schedule I controlled substance ...

. This Act and the ''United States v. Forbes''

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

federal district court case stipulated that the burden of proof, in regards for the intention for human consumption, was on the government if any prosecution under the Federal Analog Act was to occur. Additionally, legal ambiguities regarding the legality of certain analogs of scheduled substances had been established in the aforementioned court case (In particular, the similarities of AET and

DMT ''N'',''N''-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT or ''N'',''N''-DMT, SPL026) is a substituted tryptamine that occurs in many plants and animals, including human beings, and which is both a derivative and a structural analog of tryptamine. It is used as a ...

were debated).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Web Tryp, Operation 2004 in the United States Drug Enforcement Administration operations Drugs in the United States