The legal and public health response to novel psychoactive drugs

This collection of papers addresses the issue of the 'legal highs' market, one which only a few years ago was regarded as an area of limited significance. Things change rapidly however, and today the question of how to respond to the challenges posed by the emergence of new drugs has become one of major international concern. The papers in this virtual issue highlight the need for a very different regulatory regime to address the challenge presented by a plethora of new psychoactive substances appearing on the market.

• Acute toxicity due to the confirmed consumption of synthetic cannabinoids: clinical and laboratory findings
• Controlling new drugs under marketing regulations
• Against Excess
• New Zealand to establish fit for purpose regulation for new psychoactive substances
• The dangerous charms of the unknow
• Supply always comes on the heels of demand: what effects to do control strategies have on drug users themselves?
• No quick fix for legal highs
• Cognitive and subjective effects of mephedrone and factors influencing use of a new "legal high"
• Scheduling of newly emerging drugs: a critical review of decisions over 40 years
• Optimizing drug scheduling
• Mephedrone: use, subjective effects and health risks
• Mephedrone: new kid for the chop?
• AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AS A RECREATIONAL DRUG IN BRAZIL
• Legal highs and the challenges for policy makers
• Warning: legal synthetic cannabinoid-receptor agonists such as JWH-018 may precipitate psychosis in vulnerable individuals
• How globalization and market innovation challenge how we think about and respond to drug use: 'Spice' a case study
• Dangers of banning spice and the synthetic cannabinoid agents

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