New Drugs in Record Number - Eurad

The continuous appearance of ‘legal highs’ demand more cooperation between countries,  conclude the Annual report 2010: the state of the drugs problem in Europe, launched by the EMCDDA- European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon, Portugal.

"Legal highs"

The appearance of new unregulated synthetic compounds, marketed on the Internet as ‘legal highs’ or ‘not for human consumption’, presents a growing challenge for monitoring, responding to, and controlling the use of new psychoactive substances.

Already in 2010, 31 new substances have been detected via the EWS. These include: synthetic cathinones, synthetic cannabinoids, as well as new synthetic substances resembling cocaine and amphetamines. In the most recent EMCDDA online snapshot survey of online retailers (early 2010), 170 online shops were identified selling ‘legal highs’ and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

 Twenty-four new substances

A record number of new drugs were officially reported in 2009 to the EMCDDA and Europol via the EU fast-track early-warning system (EWS). 24 new psychoactive substances were reported. This represents, not only the largest number of substances ever reported in a single year, but almost double the number notified in 2008 (13). All of the new drugs were synthetic.

A new development highlighted in this year’s report is the growing popularity of synthetic cathinones such as mephedrone. These are derivatives of the parent drug cathinone, which is structurally related to amphetamine.

Over 15 synthetic cathinones are currently being monitored through the EWS. Towards the end of 2009, increased evidence of the use and availability of mephedrone prompted the EMCDDA’s extended Scientific Committee to assess the health and social risks of the drug in 2010.

Read more here: Mephedrone report

 Control measures

In the wake of this risk assessment, Europe is currently considering controlling the substance. Several countries have already adopted measures to control mephedrone (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Poland, Romania, Sweden, the UK, Croatia and Norway). Two Member States — the Netherlands and Finland — apply control measures to mephedrone under their medicines legislation.

The ‘Spice’ phenomenon — smokable herbal products laced with synthetic cannabinoids — also continues to evolve. Both the names and brand packaging of ‘Spice’-like products diversified, with their psychoactive compounds changing in response to control measures. A total of nine synthetic cannabinoids, from at least four distinct chemical groups, were reported via the EWS in 2009.