Illicit drugs, legal highs and over-consumption of psychoactive medicines

Dear Editors, In a previous issue of CSP, Honorio et al. 1 addressed the instigating question of “legal highs”, or psychoactive drugs that are not prohibited by Brazil’s laws. Although many traditionally used substances such as alcohol, solvents (e.g., glue, toluene and gasoline sniffing), indigenous plants, nicotine (in tobacco) and others could fit into this category, the term “legal highs” is generally used to refer to an entirely new class of products (also known as “designer drugs” and “herbal highs”) that have recently emerged in the recreational drug market. These “new players in the old drama”, as Zawilska 2 called them, are plant-derived and synthetic drugs including amphetamineand ecstasy-like psychostimulants, hallucinogens, phencyclidine analogs and synthetic cannabinoids (“spice”). Banned drugs and those put under strict control are described by their chemical names and thus restrictive legal provisions can be bypassed by structural modifications that alter the chemical identity but do not change the targeted psychopharmacological effects. Since they are not listed in national regulations (in Brazil, SVS/MS Directive 344/98 and its annexes), “legal highs” are unregulated and can be freely sold, possessed and used. The emergence of “designer drugs” as a public health problem was boosted by the internet revolution and, as highlighted by Carrol et al. 3, by modern advancements in medicinal chemistry. In their excellent overview, Carrol et al. 3 described how clandestine chemists took advantage of the abundant literature on the pharmacological properties and synthesis of psychoactive agents (psychostimulants, narcotics, hallucinogens, anxiolytics, hypnotics, cannabinoids, Carta letteR

Consumption (sociology) · Criminology · Drug · Environmental health · Illicit drug · Psychiatry · Psychoactive drug · Psychoactive substance · Public health · Sociology · Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis · Medicine · Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Psychology

• Legal highs

  Open Access•Jonathan Celli Honorio, Regiane Leiko Kawamura et al.•Cadernos de Saude Publica•2014

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