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SCANNER

SCANNER project, funded by the Justice fund of the European comission, aimes at understanding the dynamics and consecuences of the use of new psicoactive substances at european level, in front of a constantly changing drugs market (online).The project is coordinated by SCIENSANO (BE) and has as partners the organizations Welfare and Development Association ABD (SP), Vlaamse expertisecentrum Alcohol en andere Drugs VAD (BE), Medical University of Vienna (AT), Associação Kosmicare (PT), Youth Organisations for Drug Action (PL), BASIS – Beratung, Arbeit, Jugend & Kultur e.V. (DE) and DrogArt (SI).It will be implemented in several european countries between February 2020 and November 2022.

Context

In the last decade increasing amounts of new psychoactive substances (NPS) have been identified in Europe. These NPS are chemically and toxicologically similar to classic illicit drugs but evade legislation by structural alterations. Little information is available regarding NPS consumption, user patterns or profiles. Additionally, laboratory analysis of NPS is difficult because reference material supply is poor or because chemical spectra are not readily available. The most frequently used response to tackle the problem is a legislative change. However, little information is available regarding the influence of legislation on the identity of NPS offered for sale online and their quality and purchase methods.Identifying which NPS offered for sale using continuous web monitoring, both before and after a change in legislation will yield valuable information on the effect of legislation on identity and price of NPS available online. By purchasing and subsequently analysing NPS using analytical chemistry we will establish to what extent the identity of NPS available online matches the presumed identity as advertised by the vendor.