The increasing supply of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) is changing
the drug market in a fundamental way. In 2014, 101 new substances were
identified and over 450 new psychoactive drugs are currently being monitored by
the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
From our on-line studies of NPS and the motivations for using them we have noticed how NPS users have been gravitating towards these new and
untested substances as a substitute to illicit substances. Recurrently it was
observed that participants in our NPS studies rather would have used a more
well-known psychoactive drug (and therefore also illicit) but to avoid
consequences and conditions springing from drug prohibition and existing drug
policies, often times “settled” for an NPS as a substitute.
The process where more unknown drugs, with less stringent controls, are used as a substitute to illicit drugs have been referred to as substance
displacement by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC. Substance
displacement is listed by UNODC alongside several other unintended consequences
from prohibition and current drug policies effecting drug use as well as
allocation of limited prevention resources. From our research we have
recognized several pathways of NPS use confirming UNODCS accounts, and we have also
identified additional factors, like healthcare policies, driving certain types
of drug displacement involving NPS. The paradoxical situation of how repressive
drug policy tactics contribute to the use of NPS has also been discussed by
several other NPS researchers.
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