New psychoactive substances. The phenomenon development and the institutional and legal mechanisms for its prevention
New psychoactive substances. The phenomenon development and the institutional and legal mechanisms for its prevention

Summary/Abstract: The phenomenon observed in many countries for many years is an attempt tobypass the law by launching psychoactive substances on the market whose possessionand sale is not regulated by the existing drug law. The number of chemically andbiologically modified substances is dramatically increasing and the substancesthemselves are increasingly stronger and threatening people’s health and lives. Issuesrelating to the occurrence of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are the subject ofincreasingly in-depth analyses. In connection with the steadily increasing numberof NPS and their substantial availability, there are more and more doubts aboutthe effectiveness of the model adopted in earlier years in Europe and in individualcountries, whose purpose is to subject new psychoactive substances to legal control.Based on the information presented in the article, one can assume that the reason forthe development of new psychoactive substances to date was, on the one hand, theweakness of the legal regulations in force, both national and international, and onthe other, specialized technical and chemical capabilities of manufacturers. Anotherthesis that can be put in the context of the studied subject is the statement that thephenomenon of new psychoactive substances has a high criminogenic susceptibilityand is a decisively negative phenomenon, classified as the pathology of social life.In view of the above, the activities of prevention, detection and control of newpsychoactive substances are important in the process of effective fight against NPS.The article does not constitute a comprehensive and complex overview of whatNPS are. The aim of the study is a multifaceted analysis of the phenomenon of suchsubstances, which will allow for a deeper understanding of the causes of such a widescale of NPS, their diversity and ease of accessibility. Considering the above, the articleattempts to stress the priority issues according to the article’s author and which arecrucial in the process of universally understood NPS prevention – i.e. internationalcooperation, national legal regulations, and chemical analyses conducted in forensiclaboratories.

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