[Hygiene policy plan at the beginning of the Meiji era: focusing on "the magazine of the Sanitary Bureau of the Home Ministry"].

"The Sanitary Bureau of the Home Ministry Magazine," in which Sensai Nagayo served as the Director of the Sanitary Bureau of the Home Ministry also took part, provide valuable historical materials regarding the Sanitary Bureau at the beginning of the Meiji era. This paper reports on the hygiene policy plan at that time by using this magazine. That is, the plan considered the facts about the regional society when executing it, though it was based on the hygiene system assumed to be an ideal "Isei". In that case, it involved not only the police but also the doctors and pharmacists as practitioners who practiced hygienic clerical work, and it aimed at bringing the functions of the hygienic clerical work to the local populace. However, neither the doctors nor pharmacists came to play a role when cholera was prevalent in 1877. Rather, at that time, the police practiced the hygienic clerical work, and the police came to be parts of the hygienic policy thereafter, as indispensable practitioners.

DARK Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Cathinone-Derived Psychostimulants.

Cathinone is a plant alkaloid found in khat leaves of perennial shrubs grown in East Africa. Similar to cocaine, cathinone elicits psychostimulant effects which are in part attributed to its amphetamine-like structure. Around 2010, home laboratories began altering the parent structure of cathinone to synthesize derivatives with mechanisms of action, potencies, and pharmacokinetics permitting high abuse potential and toxicity. These "synthetic cathinones" include 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone), 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and the empathogenic agent 3,4-methylenedioxymethcathinone (methylone) which collectively gained international popularity following aggressive online marketing as well as availability in various retail outlets. Case reports made clear the health risks associated with these agents and, in 2012, the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States placed a series of synthetic cathinones on Schedule I under emergency order. Mechanistically, cathinone and synthetic derivatives work by augmenting monoamine transmission through release facilitation and/or presynaptic transport inhibition. Animal studies confirm the rewarding and reinforcing properties of synthetic cathinones by utilizing self-administration, place conditioning, and intracranial self-stimulation assays and additionally show persistent neuropathological features which demonstrate a clear need to better understand this class of drugs. This Review will thus detail (i) historical context of cathinone use and the rise of "dark" synthetic derivatives, (ii) structural features and mechanisms of synthetic cathinones, (iii) behavioral effects observed clinically and in animals under controlled laboratory conditions, and (iv) neurotransmitters and circuits that may be targeted to manage synthetic cathinone abuse in humans.