What are Psychoactive Substances?
Psychoactive substances often incorrectly called legal highs – contain one or more mind altering substances which produce similar effects to illegal drugs (like cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy.)
Although some of these ‘legal highs’ have been legal in the past, many are currently illegal. And it’s important to realise that when the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 comes into effect on 26th May 2016, none of these drugs are now legal to supply, import or produce, (even for personal use) for human consumption.
New psychoactive substances may sound like an awkward term, but it’s more exact than legal highs. You’ll still hear people talking about legal highs, as it’s a commonly understood term, you might still find it used on anywhere you go. But now they are all illegal when the new law came into effect on the 26 th May 2016.
There is not enough known about many of these drugs to know about their potency, the effects on people, or what happens when they’re used with alcohol or other substances.' The packaging might describe a list of ingredients but you can never be sure that this is what’s inside. So you can’t really be definite what you’ve purchased or been handed, or what effect it’s likely to have on you or your friends.
Many NPS are sold under brand names like ‘Mary Jane’, ‘Bliss’, ‘Clockwork Orange’, ‘and some have been related to hospital admissions, poisoning, and, in some cases unfortunately death.
The main effects of almost all psychoactive drugs, can be described using four main categories:
- stimulants
- sedatives or downers
- psychedelics or hallucinogens
- synthetic cannabinoids
No comments:
Post a Comment