Published The motivation for using Novel Psychoactive Substances - Survey

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NPS_researcher

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Mar 12, 2014
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Dear community,

My name is Christophe Soussan and I’m a research coordinator at Karlstad University, Sweden. My colleague, Professor Anette Kjellgren, and I are interested in the motivation for using Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS). By NPS we mean a non-traditional or non-established psychoactive substance that at the time of usage was considered novel. NPS are perhaps more commonly referred to as "legal highs", "designer drugs" or "research chemicals", and often mimic the effects of traditional drugs.

We are looking to recruit people who have used a Novel Psychoactive Substance(s) within the last two years, and are 18 years or older, for participation in a survey. We are aware of the fact that some substances may fall in between the definition of either traditional or novel. If in doubt, it is better that you fill out the survey than refrain from participation all together.

The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to fill out. This is an international study and no restrictions on country of residence exists. The study begins on the first of October and will continue until February 28, 2015. The study is ethically reviewed with the reference number C2014/419. By participating, you contribute to a greater scientific knowledge about the motives for using NPS. The results will be published as a research article during 2015.

Link to the survey: https://sunet.artologik.net/kau/Survey/4511

Thank you,
Christophe Soussan
[email protected]

Department of Psychology
Karlstad University, Sweden
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks to everyone who has taken part so far.

As many of you would know, Bluelight is dependent upon donations. Karlstad University has kindly made a donation to Bluelight, and in return, we are helping to promote this survey.

While it is always an individual decision whether or not to participate in research, Bluelight admin recommends that those of you who have used NPS in the last 2 years do consider participating in this survey as a way of rewarding our supporters.

If you have any comments on the survey, feel free to post them - as you can see, Christophe is available to address any concerns you may have!
 
Completed the survey :) I encourage others to do so as well. Personally I like doing surveys anyway, especially if the amount of scale-rating questions posed in a huge grid is limited. I just don't happen to come across *that* many surveys.
Also I think getting a better understanding of our use of novel compounds is an interesting and potentially important thing. Maybe I'm just fascinated by research chemicals, I don't know... 8)

Obviously I appreciate KU supporting Bluelight (in return) very much.
 
I just finished and it was quick and painless. The more people who take the survey the more data they will have for this research project.
 
I took it on my phone actually. took about 15 mins. mostly because I had to actually stop and think if I even enjoyed RC's but the answer was no for the most part
 
Honestly, I don't like the survey. It seems to me that you're not exploring the difference in motivations between using NPS and "classic" drugs enough. The use of NPS is totally correlative with an individual's access to classic drugs. The use of these substances would have never spiked like it has were the "classics" so hard to come by. The fact that no-one except those that partake in this culture seems to understand. I feel this survey would be much much better were there an open-ended question as to the motivations to use whichever NPS instead of it's correlated (albeit a large amount of the time there not being a "sibling" drug) classic brother. It's all about accessibility, accessibility, accessibility.
 
Thanks everyone for contributing!

@psy997, please use the free text field in the survey for additional information. All opinions are valuable from a research perspective so we appreciate your contribution.
 
psy997 said:
The use of NPS is totally correlative with an individual's access to classic drugs.
Click to expand...

That is a total assumption, I'm not sure if it's actually true. It really isn't for me anyway.
Hopefully the study can quantify how many people are mostly taking them for availability reasons (which is one of the factors / questions in the survey!), and how many take them for other reasons, and which ones.

I would encourage constructive criticism, but I think I see a few holes in yours.
 
done

Thanks for posting this here, and contributing to research on nps substances, more importantly the ergoline, tryptamine, and phenethylamine psychedelics that fall into that drug category.
 
Thanks everyone!

I also get frustrated when these new drugs are not considered in context with their counterparts, e.g. research into synthetic cannabinoid products that doesn't also consider cannabis use. But I think this survey covers this angle both in the ratings (there is one about availability and legality) and in the free text field. And it's not the only reason - some people have ample access to traditional psychedelics but are very curious to try the new ones.
 
I've actually never tried "bath salts" or anything like that thanks to test kits never purchased them. Methamphetamine, MDMA, MDA yes but others.. nope
 
I'll participate just cause this site is free and set up well for Mobile.
Also a lot of useful information
 
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