Among the 10,000 samples of powders, plants, crystals but also liquids seized by customs and tested each year, 10 to 20% on average now belong to the category of new synthetic products, the NPS. These figures are taken from the long survey of our colleagues from France Info on the market for new synthetic drugs.
“If NPS are still less consumed than cannabis and cocaine in France according to OFDT data, they are clearly making a name for themselves on the drug market”, say the journalists.
Manufacturing workshops in Europe
Unlike so-called classic drugs (cocaine, heroin, etc.) made from coca or poppy plants, these NPS are derived from chemical products, such as petroleum derivatives (benzene, kerozene, etc.) or acids and acetone. The source of these new drugs is also changing. “There are manufacturing workshops in China, but now also on the European continent (mainly in Poland and the Netherlands)”, explains to France Info Rita Jorge, scientific analyst at the EMCDDA.
According to the report of the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), around fifty NPS appear on the European market each year, ie nearly one per week. Today there are nearly 900 identified. Among them, Buddha Blue, Bust your head and the famous 3-MMC, three times cheaper than cocaine.
“Bypassing the Laws”
And these drugs caused 15 deaths in 2020, according to figures from the survey called Dramas, devoted to deaths related to the abusive consumption of psychotropic drugs. They also escape narcotics tests carried out during roadside checks or, other characteristics, allow “bypassing the legislation”, explains France Info. “The new synthetic products have been specifically created for this,” says Pierre Chappard to our colleagues.
According to the president of the Psychoactif association, any new molecule not listed in the nomenclature of narcotics or psychotropics by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) “falls into a legal void which makes any prosecution inoperative. “.
The prevention association Play Safe created a fake NPS ordering site in April 2021. It has since recorded at least 20,000 orders and could have potentially achieved a turnover of 4 million euros in one year.