New Psychoactive Substances

New (or novel) psychoactive substances (NPS), often inappropriately called ‘legal highs’ or ‘research chemicals’ constitute a significant public health risk and are an important focus of CRI's work in substance misuse.

NPS are created by slightly tweaking the molecular structure of existing illegal drugs, like ecstasy, and therefore mimic the effects of those drugs on the body and mind. Because these are brand new substances on a molecular level, many of them remain legal by default, although some NPS, like Ketamine, GHB and Mephedrone have now been classified by the government.

Novel psychoactive substances are constantly being created, often at a faster rate than regulators can analyse and classify them, so the problem of NPS constitutes a major challenge.

The law states that all medicines (defined as substances which have an effect on your mind or body) must be licensed and regulated in order to be sold. Because of this, when legal highs are sold they are often marked as ‘not for human consumption’. This wording is intended to protect the seller in the event that serious physical or psychological harm is caused as a result of the buyer taking the drug.

NPS are of particular concern to CRI for a number of reasons:

• NPS can be thousands of times stronger than their illegal equivalents, so just a tiny amount could trigger an extreme psychoactive response. In 2012, 68 people died after taking legal highs.
• We know from our work in young people’s services that NPS are increasingly popular among this vulnerable group.
• Their attractive packaging, along with the option of buying NPS online or at high street ‘head shops’ means that many mistakenly think of them as a safe option, when their effects are often erratic and unpredictable.
• Because their effects are not well-known, and there are new NPS being developed all the time, if someone who has taken a 'legal high' needs medical attention, it can be hard for healthcare professionals to identify the cause and select the best treatment method quickly.
• For the same reason, it is harder to identify when a person has a serious problem with a new psychoactive substance, and harder to get them the right support early on.

What CRI is doing:

• We have created strangemolecules.org.uk, a website for young people. It aims to reduce the harm that results from young people taking legal highs by providing clear, non-patronising information and offering an anonymous method of asking for expert advice.
• We collect information about NPS, their popularity, availability and negative effects in our work with service users around the country. We use this information to shape our services and constantly improve the quality of care we offer to users of NPS.
• We are hiring more NPS specialists in our services, and delivering training to schools, youth workers, professionals and colleges.
• Michael Lawrence, CRI's Novel Psychoactive Substance Development Lead, heads up all our work on NPS. He was on the NPS sub-group for education and prevention, established by Norman Baker MP, and he meets regularly with the Department of Health to share CRI's up-to-date expertise on NPS.
• We set up specialist NPS drop-in centres in areas where they are needed.