Designer drugs, legal highs, new psychoactive substances (NPS), research chemicals.
What are new psychoactive substances?
New psychoactive substances (NPS) are drugs which were designed to replicate the effects of illegal substances like cannabis, cocaine, and ecstasy whilst remaining legal – hence their previous name ‘legal highs’.
NPS began to appear in the UK drug scene around 2008/ 2009. They fall into four main categories:
Synthetic cannabinoids – these drugs mimic cannabis and are trade...
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