Challenges in the control of synthetic drugs of abuse

Synthetic psychoactive substances continue to be the bane of drug regulators worldwide. Even in the 1960s, before the pyschopharmacologist Alexander Shulgin experimented with and published synthetic routes for hundreds of psychoactive substances (in what is perhaps the opening of Pandora’s box in terms of synthetic drugs of abuse), the world has had to contend with the problems of modern times such as the abuse of ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA). At the twentieth special session of the UN General Assembly (UNGASS) on countering the world drug problem, Member States adopted a Political Declaration that called for, inter alia, the elimination or significant reduction of illicit manufacture, marketing and trafficking of psychotropic substances, synthetic drugs and precursors by 2008. Ten years is a significant milestone to reflect on what has been, and continues to be one of the most challenging aspects of drug control in the modern era.