Legislative measures' impact on the new psychoactive substances market

Abstract

While much has been learned about the impact of various government interventions in the markets for traditionally illicit drugs, the recreational drug markets that operate in a legal gray area are often overlooked in contemporary research. This chapter examines how government interventions on illicit drugs have created a separate market of New Psychoactive Substances (NPSs), more commonly known as "legal highs." To restrict the sale and use of these products, governments have used several legislative approaches, including banning individual NPSs on a case-by-case basis and banning entire groups/analogs of NPSs, all with varying degrees of success. Governments have also created new measures such as temporary banning orders as well as attempted to regulate low-risk products to better handle the problems resulting from NPS use. This chapter examines some of the strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches as well as examines some of their unintended consequences. The chapter concludes by providing an overview of some of the reasons against what some researchers have deemed to be an overregulation of this market. Finally, a case study of the once popular NPS mephedrone is used to illustrate the impact that regulatory changes on this product had on the mephedrone market.