The complex and constantly evolving public health threat of new psychoactive substances in Italy: addressing the main functions of a national observatory of drugs
Silvia Graziano1, Simona Zaami2, Roberta Tittarelli2, Simona Pichini1, Michele Sciotti1, Paolo Berretta1, Francesco Paolo Busardò3, Enrico Marinelli2, Anastasio Tini2, Giulia Scaravaggi4, Eleonora Buscaglia4, Elena Brambilla4, Marco Cavallo5, Carlo Alessandro Locatelli4, Roberta Pacifici1 and Maria Rosaria Varì1
1.Centro Nazionale Dipendenze e Doping, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
2.Scienze Anatomiche, Istologiche, Medico Legali e dell’Apparato Locomotore, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
3.Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Sanità Pubblica, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy
4.Centro Antiveleni, Centro Nazionale di Informazione Tossicologica, IRCCS Maugeri, Pavia, Italy
5.Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga, Dipartimento della Pubblica Sicurezza, Rome, Italy
DOI: 10.4415/ANN_21_02_06
At the end of the 90s in Europe, the new psychoactive substances (NPS) phenomenon was limited to a small number of molecules created to mimic the actions and psychoactive effects of licensed medicines and existing drugs that are controlled by the United Nations drug conventions and therefore traded as their “legal” replacements. NPS were mostly circulating in rave parties and electronic music festivals. The globalization, the evolution of e-commerce and the growing popularity of NPS, facilitated the development of a wide illegal market in constant expansion. The dynamic nature of this phenomenon has led to an evolution in the prevention and monitoring of NPS trafficking within the European Union. The European legislative system has been amended with the aim of creating a faster and more effective regulatory system to tackle NPS diffusion and ban
their sale and circulation. At the end of 2008, in compliance with the European Council Decision 2005/387/JHA, the Anti-Drug Policies Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers activated the National Early Warning System to promote a rapid exchange of information on NPS between Italy and the EU.
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