Novel drugs—novel branding

There has been increasing use of a number of different novel psychoactive substances (often referred to as ‘legal highs’) over the last few years. The drug that has received the most publicity is mephedrone.1 However, there were 41 new substances detected in Europe in 2010.2 These novel psychoactive substances are often purchased from Internet-based suppliers and are commonly marketed under broad categories such as ‘plant food’, ‘bath salts’ and ‘research chemicals’.2 They are also often sold under brand names such as ‘Ivory Wave’, ‘Head Candy’ and ‘Neuroblast’. Neither the broad categories or these brand names are representative of the actual contents of the products.3–5 There is often little information on …