MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands – April 2019: The sixth International Conference on NPS was held in Maastricht from 8 to 9 April 2019, with the aim to increase knowledge on NPS, strengthen the evidence base and promote innovative strategies to protect public health and foster global collaboration. 250 participants from multidisciplinary fields from 29 countries attended the conference. The sessions included latest trends in NPS use, settings, experiences and trends; detection, identification and characterization; pharmacology and toxicology; prevention, harm reduction, treatment and clinical management; performance- and image-enhancing drugs; early-warning and toxicovigilance; monitoring new psychoactive substances; and policy and legislation. The conference was jointly organized by the UNODC, EMCDDA, WADA, the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Maastricht.

UNODC’s contribution to the conference included a presentation that provided an overview on the latest global trends of the NPS market, highlighting that periods of rapid emergence of substances of abuse have been often recorded in the long history of international drug control. The presentation looked at events behind the scenes and highlighted lessons learnt from the delineation of policy responses for NPS and traditional drugs; the creation of niche markets and the shift to vulnerable populations. It concluded by presenting best practices such as the Toolkit on Synthetic drugs which might aid in addressing possible future cycles of new substance emergence.



For further information please see:

- Sixth International Conference on NPS
- UNODC presentation ‘The emergence of new psychoactive substances – a crisis that did not happen?’
- UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs (works best with Chrome)