meta-Methoxyamphetamine (MMA), also known as 3-methoxyamphetamine (3-MA), is a stimulant

Stimulant

Stimulants are psychoactive drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both. Examples of these kinds of effects may include enhanced alertness, wakefulness, and locomotion, among others...

 drug

Drug

A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...

 from the amphetamine

Substituted amphetamine

Substituted amphetamines are a chemical class of stimulants, entactogens, hallucinogens, and other drugs. They feature a phenethylamine core with a methyl group attached to the alpha carbon resulting in amphetamine, along with additional substitutions...

 family. It has similar effects in animal drug discrimination tests to the more widely known derivative 4-methoxyamphetamine (PMA), although with a slightly different ratio of monoamine release, being a combined serotonin

Serotonin

Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Biochemically derived from tryptophan, serotonin is primarily found in the gastrointestinal tract, platelets, and in the central nervous system of animals including humans...

, dopamine

Dopamine

Dopamine is a catecholamine neurotransmitter present in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In the brain, this substituted phenethylamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating the five known types of dopamine receptors—D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5—and their...

, and norepinephrine

Norepinephrine

Norepinephrine is the US name for noradrenaline , a catecholamine with multiple roles including as a hormone and a neurotransmitter...

 releasing agent

Releasing agent

A releasing agent , or simply releaser, is a drug that induces the release of a neurotransmitter from the presynaptic neuron into the synapse, leading to an increase in the extracellular concentrations of the neurotransmitter. Many drugs use neurotransmitter release to exert their psychological and...

 rather than a fairly selective

Binding selectivity

Binding selectivity refers to the differing affinities with which different ligands bind to a substrate forming a complex. A selectivity coefficient is the equilibrium constant for the reaction of displacement by one ligand of another ligand in a complex with the substrate...

 serotonin releaser

Serotonin releasing agent

A serotonin releasing agent is a type of drug which induces the release of serotonin from the pre-synaptic neuron into the synapse...

 like PMA. 3-Methoxyamphetamine has similarly appeared on the illicit market as a designer drug

Designer drug

Designer drug is a term used to describe drugs that are created to get around existing drug laws, usually by preparing analogs or derivatives of existing drugs by modifying their chemical structure to varying degrees, or less commonly by finding drugs with entirely different chemical structures...

 alternative to MDMA, although far more rarely than its infamous positional isomer. It produces gepefrine

Gepefrine

Gepefrine , also known as α-methyl-​meta-tyramine, is a cardiac stimulant drug.- See also :* 3-Methoxyamphetamine * 3-Methylamphetamine * 3-Fluoroamphetamine...

, a cardiac stimulant

Cardiac stimulant

A cardiac stimulant is a substance which acts as a stimulant of the heart -- for example, via positive chronotropic or inotropic action.Examples of cardiac stimulant drugs are cocaine and methamphetamine....

, as one of its major metabolite

Metabolite

Metabolites are the intermediates and products of metabolism. The term metabolite is usually restricted to small molecules. A primary metabolite is directly involved in normal growth, development, and reproduction. Alcohol is an example of a primary metabolite produced in large-scale by industrial...

s.

See also

• 2-Methoxyamphetamine
  2-Methoxyamphetamine
  2-Methoxyamphetamine , also known as ortho-methoxyamphetamine , is a drug of the amphetamine class. It is substantially weaker in inhibiting the reuptake of and inducing the release of the monoamine neurotransmitters compared to related agents such as amphetamine, MMA, and PMA, and may instead act...
  
   (OMA)
• 3-Methylamphetamine
  3-Methylamphetamine
  3-Methylamphetamine is a stimulant drug from the amphetamine family. It is self-administered by mice to a similar extent to 4-fluoroamphetamine and has comparable properties as a monoamine releaser, although with a more balanced release of all three monoamines, as opposed to the more...
  
   (3-MA)
• 3-Fluoroamphetamine
  3-Fluoroamphetamine
  3-Fluoroamphetamine is a stimulant drug from the amphetamine family which acts as a monoamine releaser with similar potency to methamphetamine but more selectivity for dopamine and noradrenaline release over serotonin...
  
   (3-FA)
• 3-Trifluoromethylamphetamine
  Norfenfluramine
  Norfenfluramine is a psychoactive drug which functions as a serotonin releasing agent and potent 5HT2B receptor agonist. The action of norfenfluramine on 5HT2B receptors on heart valves leads to a characteristic pattern of heart failure following proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts on the...
  
   (Norfenfluramine)
• 3-Methoxy-4-methylamphetamine
  3-Methoxy-4-methylamphetamine
  3-Methoxy-4-methylamphetamine is an entactogen and psychedelic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine classes. It was first synthesized in 1970 and was encountered as a street drug in Italy in the same decade. MMA was largely forgotten until being reassayed by David E...
  
   (MMA)
• 3-Methoxymethamphetamine
  3-Methoxymethamphetamine
  3-Methoxymethamphetamine , is an amphetamine-derived stimulant drug, which is most closely related to 3-methoxyamphetamine and PMMA and shares similar monoamine releasing effects, although its effects have not been studied so extensively as other related drugs.- See also :* PMA* Fenfluramine*...
  
   (MMMA)
• 4-Ethoxyamphetamine (4-ETA)