Designer drugs are on the increase driven by the ease with which they can be bought and sold online, the European drugs agency has warned.
The rate at which new ‘legal highs’ are hitting the European drugs market is continuing to rise due to internet trading, the EU drugs agency has said. A total of 81 new psychoactive substances, also labelled designer drugs, were reported in 2013, up from 73 the previous year, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said. Europe's Early Warning System, a mechanism designed to detect emerging drugs, is struggling to cope with the rate at which new synthetic substances are emerging, the EMCDDA warned. And there are fears designer drugs that have contributed to deaths are escaping detection. In its European Drug Report 2013, the agency said the UK's average mortality rate due to overdose was 38.3 per million population, more than twice the average for Europe at 17 per million.
