UN Raises Alarm over Rapid Spread of Designer Drugs

Health | June 27, 2013, Thursday // 18:21|  views

The abuse of prescription drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS) is on the rise, according to the 2013 World Drug Report. File photo

While the use of traditional drugs is largely stable, demand is soaring for untested concoctions of psychoactive substances that threaten to be more dangerous, the United Nations drug and crime agency said.

The popularity of traditional drugs, such as cannabis – still the most widely used illicit substance – heroin and cocaine seems to be declining in some parts of the world, while the abuse of prescription drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS) is on the rise, according to the 2013 World Drug Report.

Sold openly, including online, NPS are marketed as “legal highs” with nicknames such as “spice”, “plant food”, “bath salts” and “meow meow”, a type of mephedrone with effects similar to the effects of cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy.

“There is an alarming new drug problem,” UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Yury Fedotov said, using the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse to launch the report at a special high-level event of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the central UN policymaking body dealing with drug-related matters.

The drugs are called “designer” because they are based on existing illegal recreation drugs with chemical structures that are modified to varying degrees to evade the drug laws. The mixtures of NPS can easily cross from “safe” to toxic, resulting in “delirium and violent behaviour.”

The number of NPS reported by Member States to UNODC rose from 166 at the end of 2009 to 251 by mid-2012, an increase of more than 50 per cent, according to the UN agency. It now exceeds the total number of the 234 substances under international control.

In his message on the International Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a comprehensive response to the world drug problem, one that included legal action and robust law enforcement, as well as prevention and treatment approaches “rooted in science, public health and human rights.”

“The goal of our work must be to reduce the number of people in prison, decrease the physical and mental health burden of drugs, and prevent HIV transmission,” he declared, adding: “Let us work together to help millions of people around the world escape the destructive impact of illicit drugs.”

The UN chief called on governments, the media and civil society to do everything possible to raise awareness of the harm caused by illicit drugs.

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Tags: UN, drugs, designer

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