How to Use designer drug in a Sentence

designer drug

noun
  • Ecstasy is a designer drug.
  • Some sort of new/designer drug not written into the rules cannot be the cause of a penalty.
    — Profootballdoc, sandiegouniontribune.com, 12 June 2018
  • Chicago is on edge because of a new lethal designer drug whose victims have been those who are not drug addicts.
    — Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2026
  • This isn’t some designer drug that racing authorities haven’t seen yet or snake venom bought on the black market.
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 9 May 2021
  • The kids, too, are well drawn and eccentric, including one who has a designer drug for every mood and occasion.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 5 Apr. 2018
  • Silmi obtained large amounts of cocaine and designer drugs as part of the operation, according to agents.
    — Eric Heisig, cleveland.com, 26 Aug. 2019
  • This approach genetically alters neurons so that they can be controlled by designer drugs.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 1 Sep. 2025
  • Manatee could become the second county in Florida to ban kratom and other designer drugs.
    — Miami Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
  • While assays exist for the currently illicit substance, the same test may not be able to identify a related designer drug.
    — Simon Hadlington, Scientific American, 19 June 2014
  • All the while, designer drugs flood into high schools as kids draw together and break apart, their society riven and their judgment impaired, overdose an omnipresent threat.
    — Theodore Kupfer, National Review, 2 Sep. 2017
  • Georgia law enforcement officials noted in June that other states had warned that naloxone might not work in users who'd ingested a designer drug called acrylfentanyl.
    — Anna Edney, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Apr. 2018
  • Georgia law-enforcement officials noted in June that other states had warned that naloxone might not work in users who’d ingested a designer drug called acrylfentanyl.
    — Fortune, 19 Apr. 2018
  • Then crime boss Seizer, for whom Bird used to work, sees the perfect cover — hide a new designer drug in the furniture being moved along the East Coast.
    — Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2025
  • The designer drug does not actually contain marijuana, but is made of plants sprayed with various psychoactive chemicals.
    — Lindsey Tanner, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Apr. 2018
  • The show suggests that our modern society, with its smartphone dating apps, internet pornography and designer drugs, has made teenage life more extreme and dangerous than ever before.
    — New York Times, 23 June 2019
  • Ballard suggested the county pursue an ordinance completely banning kratom and other designer drugs, like synthetic cannabis.
    — Miami Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Worryingly, people who overdose on such designer drugs, known collectively as China White, have been said to be less responsive to antidotes now widely carried by first responders.
    — Anna Edney, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Apr. 2018
  • Kalfas said the appearance of isotonitazene and other, similar designer drugs shows why the epidemic cannot be fought by eliminating any one drug, but rather needs to be addressed by emphasizing treatment, prevention and harm reduction.
    — Terry Demio, USA TODAY, 18 May 2020
  • The market often moves faster than the regulator, and a combination of sophisticated designer drugs, masking agents and microdosing probably could outsmart even the most scrutinizing test.
    — Michael McCann, SI.com, 29 Aug. 2019
  • If adopted in Manatee County, the ordinance will align with Sarasota County’s ordinance by banning designer drugs and derivatives of kratom.
    — Miami Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Kratom is legal everywhere in Florida except Sarasota County, which banned the substance in 2014 after labeling it a designer drug.
    — Helen Freund and Kirby Wilson, Sun Sentinel, 6 Mar. 2023
  • According to this line of thinking, NBA players possess the financial wherewithal and career incentives to pay for designer drugs that evade detection, particularly when those drugs are taken in small dosages.
    — Michael McCann, SI.com, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Manufacturers periodically change its chemical composition, complicating efforts to regulate or ban the designer drug.
    — Jerzy Shedlock, Alaska Dispatch News, 3 Sep. 2017
  • Although that conviction was overturned, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada offered damning evidence in their book, Game of Shadows, that Bonds had deliberately sought out designer drugs that were undetectable by standard testing.
    — Jeremy Collins, The Atlantic, 12 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'designer drug.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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