‘No limit’ to new designer drugs

There are “virtually no limitations” to the range of chemicals used to produce so-called new psychoactive drugs, the world’s drug law watchdog has said.

The International Narcotics Control Board said over 600 such substances were known as of last October, 450 of them identified in Europe.

Many of these synthetic drugs, such as 2NBOMe, a-PVP and PMMA, have been linked with numerous fatalities and near fatalities in Ireland, most recently in the death of teenager Alex Ryan in Cork last January.