Legal highs: these new drugs are cheap, dangerous, and just a click away

Imagine a world where you can buy recreational drugs online and receive them in the post. Well, this world already exists, and not just with one or two substances, but hundreds. These drugs are known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), and their popularity shows no signs of slowing down. They are created with one very clear objective: to imitate the effects of well-known drugs like cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy (MDMA) or LSD, but with slightly modified chemical structures that get around existing laws. Their “legality” may give a false sense of safety, but this couldn’t be any further from the truth: these are little-researched substances, meaning any information about their safety is broadly unknown. This phenomenon is also difficult to monitor because the substances themselves are constantly changing. Once one is outlawed, there are already several new ones ready to take its place. Drug trafficking moves online To buy illegal drugs, you would normally have to know a local dealer – someone who has and sells them. This means exposing yourself to all manner of potential legal troubles, as well as personal risk. There are safer, more anonymous ways of buying drugs online through the dark web, but these require considerable know-how, and the ability to handle cryptocurrency. With NPS, however, things are totally different. Since they aren’t illegal, anyone can easily buy them online. It’s just like buying any other product – all you need is a credit card and an address, and they will show up at your front door via the usual postal or courier services. The bag may bear the warning of “not suitable for human consumption”, or perhaps be labelled as something innocuous like “bath salts”. ‘Legal ecstasy’ Cocaine, amphetamines and MDMA now have to compete with a group of imitators: synthetic cathinones, more commonly called “bath salts”. These are the most popular new stimulants in Europe today, and they are here to stay. Within this family of chemicals, the most popular is mephedrone, which was first sold online in 2007 as a legal alternative to MDMA. Its effects – euphoria, heightened appreciation of music, empathy and light sexual arousal – made it a popular party drug. However, its effects don’t last as long as MDMA, which leads people to take it various times during the same session, increasing the associated risks. Ever since 2010, when mephedrone was banned in the EU, new cathinones have appeared to fill this market niche. Drugs at festivals Music festivals are a mainstay of the summer months, and it is quite normal for attendees to get hold of – in addition to the usual alcohol and tobacco – pills or powders that might improve the experience. Typically, these contain MDMA. Unfortunately, unregulated markets like illegal drugs lack the quality controls of legal drugs or medicines. This means fraud and deception when it comes to a drug’s dose or composition is widespread – it cuts costs, heightens effects, and dodges any potential legal consequences. Read more: ‘There has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs’: the rising global threat of nitazenes and synthetic opioids This makes NPS a very attractive option. They are cheaper and easier to get hold of than the real thing, and in many cases they are still “legal”: just the thing to pass off as a popular drug like MDMA, especially when the real thing is in short supply. This happened in 2024 at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, one of Spain’s biggest music festivals. A pink, square-shaped pill was being sold as MDMA, but when it was analysed at an Energy Control testing station, it was found to contain clephedrone, a synthetic cathinone that mimics MDMA. This means that people could have unwittingly taken a new drug, with all the health risks that might entail. The paradox of prohibition The consumption of stimulants is growing year on year – as is their production. Cathinones have consolidated their position in the market in order to meet this growing, increasingly stable global demand. In 2022, 73 million people consumed amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy around the world. This figure shows that any debate over eliminating drugs is pointless: drug use is an immutable reality. When we talk about the risk of drugs, we tend to focus on addiction, but the reality is much broader. Even if a person doesn’t become addicted, taking drugs could cause problems for their mental and physical health, their work, studies, personal relationships, finances, and many other things. Read more: Cannabis education should aim to normalize — not prevent — safe and legal use The safest way to avoid the risks of taking drugs is to not take them at all. But if someone does decide to take them, it is vital that they know the risks, and that they have the information they need in order to reduce them. Nobody wants a night out to end it in hospital. Information saves lives. Policies based solely on prohibiting drugs do not reduce their consumption, trade, or harm. In fact, they may have the opposite effect: they encourage the creation of new substances that skirt around the law, but which we know very little about. This increases the risks for people who take them. For this reason, we have to break the taboo and start talking about drugs. It’s not a question of encouraging people to take drugs, but one of acknowledging reality. We must take approach that is rooted in prevention, harm reduction and, where appropriate, the regulation of substances based on solid medical and scientific consensus.