EU Drug Market: New psychoactive substances — Actions to address current threats and increase preparedness
This resource is part of EU Drug Market: New psychoactive substances — In-depth analysis by the EMCDDA and Europol.
Last update: 27 June 2024
From the analysis presented here, strategic priority areas emerge that will address the health and security problems associated with the NPS market.
- Continue to support and strengthen the capacity of national and EU early warning systems to increase situational awareness, as well as strengthen preparedness planning and the development of response measures. Ensure that threats are communicated to all stakeholders in a timely manner.
- Continue to enhance international cooperation between the Member States, EU bodies and agencies, third countries and key international partners.
- Develop plans now to minimise the potential future impact of potent opioids. This requires strengthened monitoring, plans to assess and understand the risk of the threat, and action plans to prevent and mitigate threats and to communicate threats to all stakeholders in a timely manner.
- Take measures to mitigate the public health threats associated with opioids, including ensuring access to the opioid antidote naloxone for healthcare facilities, people who use opioids, law enforcement officers and laboratories.
- Share intelligence, assess threats, monitor the situation and carry out research to improve understanding of the production and supply of new psychoactive substances in Europe, the involvement of criminal networks and the interactions that may exist between the NPS market and the more established controlled drugs market.
- Systematically integrate intelligence on operational responses to criminal networks involved in the NPS market – such as cross-border investigations or investigations within the framework of operational task forces or joint investigation teams – into NPS monitoring.
- Continue to support capacity-building activities, including training, sharing of best practices and provision of specialist equipment for law enforcement agencies (in particular customs), to increase the detection of shipments of new psychoactive substances at EU borders and within the postal and parcel services.
- Increase the ability of forensic science and toxicology laboratories to identify new psychoactive substances as well as their precursors and metabolites. This requires support for training, resources for testing, and a mechanism for producing and sharing analytical data, up-to-date analytical libraries, reference materials and expertise.
- Systematically monitor and disrupt online marketplaces, particularly those selling wholesale quantities, both on the surface web and on darknet markets, and further strengthen the partnerships with industry to restrict such sales. Particular consideration should be given to the disruption of markets selling new opioids.
- Enhance monitoring of precursors used for the production of new psychoactive substances. Understanding of this crucial element needs to be improved, in particular as regards the role of source countries and trafficking between Member States. Criminal networks currently adapt to legislation and measures implemented to control precursors, exploiting the time lag between the identification of new precursors and their control. This is particularly relevant when source countries control entire groups of new psychoactive substances using generic definitions but their precursors remain non-controlled.
- Support research into the pharmacology and toxicology of new psychoactive substances identified by the EU Early Warning System.
References
Consult the list of references used in this module.