Young people ‘guinea pigs’ for psychoactive drugs

Young people are unwittingly acting as “human guinea pigs” in the booming market for new psychoactive substances (NPS), according to the EU drugs agency.

It identified a further 98 NPS, often referred to as legal highs, in 2015. This brings to more than 560 the total number of such products identified since 2009.

The 2016 annual report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said it issued 34 NPS public health alerts since 2014.