The project
Background
The medical literature on drug abuse comprises a great corpus of work, but the technical knowledge on novel recreational compounds is hardly obtained through reference books and scientific journals because most of the information about new drugs and new trends of use is not evidence-based. The history of diffusion of any novel psychoactive compound most usually starts in closed settings, within restricted groups of ‘learned/educated’ users: the ‘psychonauts’. During 2002-2004, the EU Commission funded the ‘Psychonaut 2002’ Project (for an overview, see Schifano et al, 2006a). There is evidence that for some psychoactive compounds the large body of knowledge available online seems to contrast with small numbers of seizures at street level.
Problem analysis
Without the appropriate knowledge of those recreational drugs which are available to potential consumers, both health professionals and health agencies cannot carry out an accurate assessment of possible drug-induced medical and psychiatric consequences. There is a need of collaboration between different countries to tackle the problem. The project will develop a web scanning tool that can complement the sources of information available at the EU level. The information of the products (of either synthetic or herbal origin) detected through the web scanning will be compiled and characterised following a well established methodology, to allow unequivocal product identification.
Aims
We aim here at both implementing a regular monitoring of the web in respect to novel recreational drugs and at setting up a web scanning system which will be formally liaising with the existing EMCDDA European EWS. In doing so, specific scanning software will be used. The search will be performed in formulating queries in 9 different languages, and a particular attention will be given to qualitative analysis of drug related slang used. Initial information on novel compounds detected will be passed on to the EMCDDA for validation. Although, during the 2-year proposed project duration, a few hundreds of psychoactive compounds, either synthetic or herbal, will be provisionally identified online, a technical folder will probably need to be prepared for a few dozens of novel compounds identified in the first phase and for which some level of diffusion in the the EU recreational consumers’ community is confirmed. Information about the project findings will be posted to a number of health agencies per EU country.
Contact persons
Professor Fabrizio Schifano
Chair in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
Hon Consultant Psychiatrist (Addictions)
University of Hertfordshire
School of Pharmacy
College Lane Campus
Hatfield, Herts
AL10 9AB (UK)
Dr Paolo Deluca
Senior Research Fellow in Addictive Behaviour,
Section of Alcohol Research,
National Addiction Centre, PO48
Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry
Institute of Psychiatry
King's College London
4 Windsor Walk
London SE5 8BB
(UK)