New synthetic drugs are appearing in Europe at an unprecedented rate. While potentially much more dangerous than XTC, many are still legal because too little is yet known about their components.  A record 41 new psychoactive substances have been discovered over the past 12 months, warns the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), which has now joined forces with Europol to raise the alarm.

The phenomenon has not come out of the blue, insists Daan van der Gouwe of the Trimbos Institute here in the Netherlands.

“It’s something we’ve been seeing for a while: an increasing number of new drugs are coming onto the market, the workings of which we know nothing or hardly anything about. They are substances that resemble XTC but have a different effect and could be more dangerous. We know how XTC Works: we test it and keep up to date with developments. But we know far less about these new substances, and the same is true for the people using them.”

The Trimbos Institute focuses on carrying out checks on the substances available and informing and warning users. Together with institutes in other EU countries, it reports its findings to the EU drugs agency.

Europol head Rob Wainwright says these substances represent a major problem because theirs components are often unknown and therefore aren’t yet on a list of illegal substances.

Legal drugs
In the Netherlands, these legal drugs - or “legal highs” as insiders call them – do fall foul of the law, Van der Gouwe explains.

“All new psychoactive substances in the Netherlands automatically come under the medical drugs law, which means it is illegal to possess or sell them. Other countries, which lack such an automatic legislation, have to consider each substance separately before deciding whether to ban it or not.

But even when a substance is banned, stopping it from being traded remains difficult. Much of the trading happens online, with ever more substances coming from China. Where traditional synthetic drugs are concerned, however, Holland remains a key player, though certainly not the only one, Van der Gouwe explains.

Holland remains an important producer of XTC and amphetamines, along with Belgium, with China quickly catching on.

Spice
A new substance that is becoming very popular is Spice, which, just a few years ago, appeared as an innocuous, completely legal, herbal blend, though the sachet warned it was not suited for human consumption. Insiders, however, knew its effects strongly resembled those caused by cannabis. It wasn't until several years later that German pharmaceutical companies discovered that the blend contained several synthetic substances.

Since then the producers of Spice have tried to keep Spice on the market by constantly changing the synthetic substances, which the authorities first must test before being able to ban them.

Psychonauts
Fortunately, Van der Gouwe concludes, only a small number of people keep trying the new substances. Aside from this handful of so-called psychonauts, most people stick with XTC or amphetamines.

(cl)

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