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Public and policy concern about the use of new psychoactive substances has grown considerably in a short time. While the use of new psychoactive substances appears to be limited overall, the pace of emergence of both the variety and the quantity of new drugs identified on the drug market continue to increase. In 2014, 101 new psychoactive substances were detected, and it is noticeable how the new drugs coming onto the market, mainly synthetic cannabinoids, stimulants, hallucinogens and opioids, mirror the established substances. An unprecedented formal risk assessments of six of these new drugs were conducted in 2014 showing the importance of keeping a focus on the substances that may cause particular harm. This achievement was helped by the improved availability of information on both hospital emergencies and toxicology.
To avoid controls, many new products are often mislabelled, for example as ‘research chemicals’, with disclaimers stating “product not intended for human consumption’. These products are marketed through online retailers and specialised shops, and increasingly they are offered through the same channels used for the supply of illicit substances. The Internet has also been an important driver for the development of the market for new psychoactive substances, both directly, through online stores, and indirectly, by allowing producers easy access to research and pharmaceutical data and by providing potential consumers with a forum for information exchange.
Studies show that the use of new psychoactive substances occurs among groups as diverse as school students, party-goers, psychonauts, prisoners and injecting drug users. The motivations for use are diverse and include factors such as legal status, availability and cost, as well as the desire to avoid detection and user preferences for particular pharmacological properties. There is also evidence to suggest that new psychoactive substances have functioned as market substitutes at times of low availability and poor quality of established illicit drugs such as MDMA and cocaine.
It will be interesting to see whether the increases now being observed in the potency and purity of established drugs will have implications for the consumption of new psychoactive substances. Estimation in this area is challenging for methodological reasons, and to date national estimates have been difficult to compare, while acknowledging that the recent Flash Eurobarometer on young people and drugs would suggest that lifetime use of new psychoactive substances remains at low levels among young people in most countries. More...
