I used to take a more active interest in that scene, some years ago. I had dabbled with well known substances over the years but had always been fascinated by t

I used to take a more active interest in that scene, some years ago. I had dabbled with well known substances over the years but had always been fascinated by the reports of novel or unusual substances on erowid, and resources like Tihkal and Pihkal. So to me the sudden easy availability of (say) variations on the MDMA molecule to skirt past the UK misuse of drugs act (at the time) that resulted in the aminopropylbenzofuran family were an amazing thing, a little because of the legal status but mainly because it was appealing in itself. I wouldn't know where to find MDA, or MDEA or such things, but suddenly APB, MAPB, EAPB and other variants were there. I was able to try some of the novel tryptamines that came out of that without having the in-depth illicit-chemist hookups usually needed to source these things, even a novel lysergamide or two. You're right to be concerned about the novel benzos, and also the novel cannabinoids, IMHO.