[size=+1]'Legal highs' outstrip attempts at regulation[/size]
EU agencies warns synthetic psychoactive substances are spreading at an unprecedented rate, with 41 new ones in 2010
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 May 2011 13.43 BST
New "legal highs" are being made widely available online and in specialised shops at an unprecedented pace, outstripping attempts to control them, the European Union's drugs agency has warned.
In a report published jointly with the law enforcement agency Europol, the European Centre for Monitoring Drugs and Drug Addiction (ECMDDA) says in 2010 the two agencies officially noted 41 new psychoactive substances, many of them imitating the effects of ecstasy. Fourteen of them were first identified in Britain.
The Lisbon-based monitoring centre says the new substances are appearing at an "unprecedented pace", with the 41 new ones the largest number reported in any single year. The figure compares with 24 identified in 2009 and 13 in 2008.
The agencies say roughly a quarter of the substances identified last year – 11 of the 41 – were variants on synthetic cannabis drugs such as Spice, which 16 European countries, including Britain, have decided to ban or control amid health concerns.
A further 15 are synthetic cathinone derivatives, including mephedrone – also known as meow meow – which imitate the effects of ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. These were banned across Europe last December. The European drugs experts also identified for the first time derivatives of two other established drugs, ketamine and PCP.
Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/11/legal-highs-outstrip-attempts-regulation
EU agencies warns synthetic psychoactive substances are spreading at an unprecedented rate, with 41 new ones in 2010
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 May 2011 13.43 BST
New "legal highs" are being made widely available online and in specialised shops at an unprecedented pace, outstripping attempts to control them, the European Union's drugs agency has warned.
In a report published jointly with the law enforcement agency Europol, the European Centre for Monitoring Drugs and Drug Addiction (ECMDDA) says in 2010 the two agencies officially noted 41 new psychoactive substances, many of them imitating the effects of ecstasy. Fourteen of them were first identified in Britain.
The Lisbon-based monitoring centre says the new substances are appearing at an "unprecedented pace", with the 41 new ones the largest number reported in any single year. The figure compares with 24 identified in 2009 and 13 in 2008.
The agencies say roughly a quarter of the substances identified last year – 11 of the 41 – were variants on synthetic cannabis drugs such as Spice, which 16 European countries, including Britain, have decided to ban or control amid health concerns.
A further 15 are synthetic cathinone derivatives, including mephedrone – also known as meow meow – which imitate the effects of ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. These were banned across Europe last December. The European drugs experts also identified for the first time derivatives of two other established drugs, ketamine and PCP.
Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/11/legal-highs-outstrip-attempts-regulation
