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Deaths from novel psychoactive substances in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: Evaluating the impact of the UK psychoactive substances act 2016.

Deen, AA; Claridge, H; Treble, RD; Hamnett, HJ; Copeland, CS (2021) Deaths from novel psychoactive substances in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: Evaluating the impact of the UK psychoactive substances act 2016. J Psychopharmacol, 35 (11). pp. 1315-1323. ISSN 1461-7285 https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811211026645
SGUL Authors: Claridge, Hugh Robert

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: 'Legal highs' began appearing in the UK in the mid-2000s. Whilst many of these substances were controlled under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, novel compounds and new variants of controlled compounds were continuously being introduced to the recreational drug market. The Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) was therefore implemented in 2016 as a blanket ban on all novel psychoactive substances (NPS). AIM: To evaluate the impact of the PSA on deaths following NPS use in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. METHODS: Cases reported to the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths where death had occurred 3 years pre- or post-implementation of the PSA were extracted. Cases with NPS detected at post-mortem were analysed and compared against cases non-NPS cases. RESULTS: 293 deaths with NPS detected were identified; 91 occurring before the PSA and 202 afterwards, indicating an 222.0% post-PSA increase. Contrastingly, non-NPS drug-related death case reporting increased by only 8.0%. Synthetic cannabinoid, anxiolytic/sedative and stimulant NPS were detected in the largest proportions of deaths pre-PSA; post-PSA stimulant NPS detections reduced whilst synthetic cannabinoid and anxiolytic/sedative detections increased.Post-PSA, average decedent age increased significantly (mean age pre-PSA 34.4 ± 10.8 vs post-PSA 38.3 ± 9.4), and they were significantly more likely to have been living in deprived areas (pre-PSA 50.0% vs post-PSA 65.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Reporting of deaths following NPS use has risen despite introduction of the PSA. Whilst deaths amongst younger individuals and those living in more affluent areas has reduced, additional approaches to prohibition are needed to curb their persistence in deprived demographics.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Lficense (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Keywords: Novel psychoactive substance, designer drugs, drug policy, drug-related death, legal highs, misuse of drugs act, psychoactive substances act, substance misuse, Adolescent, Adult, England, Female, Humans, Legislation, Drug, Male, Middle Aged, Northern Ireland, Psychotropic Drugs, Recreational Drug Use, Substance-Related Disorders, Wales, Young Adult, Humans, Substance-Related Disorders, Psychotropic Drugs, Legislation, Drug, Adolescent, Adult, Middle Aged, England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Female, Male, Young Adult, Recreational Drug Use, Novel psychoactive substance, substance misuse, psychoactive substances act, legal highs, drug-related death, misuse of drugs act, drug policy, designer drugs, 11 Medical and Health Sciences, 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Psychiatry
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: J Psychopharmacol
ISSN: 1461-7285
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
1 November 2021Published
29 June 2021Published Online
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
PubMed ID: 34182812
Web of Science ID: WOS:000669637500001
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/114606
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811211026645

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