26.06 World Faces New Designer Drug Threat - UN Report

MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) � Governments across the world face a new and rapidly growing threat from legal psychoactive drugs, according to a new UN report released on Wednesday.

While the use of traditional drugs is still widespread, though more stable, in some parts of the world, the new psychoactive substances - also known as �legal highs� and �designer drugs� - can pose an even greater danger, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report stated.

�This is an alarming drug problem - but the drugs are legal. Sold openly, including via the Internet, NPS [new psychoactive substances], which have not been tested for safety, can be far more dangerous than traditional drugs,� the UN agency said in a statement.

New psychoactive substances are substances of abuse not controlled by the UN basic conventions on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances that pose a public health threat, the World Drug Report 2013 said. The report shows that the number of such substances �rose from 166 at the end of 2009 to 251 by mid-2012, an increase of more than 50 percent.�

Data on seizures shows that the new psychoactive phenomenon has been spreading worldwide, reaching Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia, among others. In total, some 70 out of 80 countries reported the emergence of new psychoactive substances.