“Legal highs” – drugs of the twenty-first century

Abstract

"Legal highs" is a term that embraces many compounds, including plant substances and synthetic derivatives. Trends in the use of traditional drugs of abuse by young people, are downward. On the other hand, we can observe an increasing prevalence of "smart drugs" use. These are often sold by online shops offering a wide range of products as alternatives to illegal drugs. However, the degree of risk posed by the use of “legal highs” for individual users, and for public health is unknown and difficult to assess [2,9,18]. The health risk may also increase when people use high doses of these products or mix these with alcohol or other drugs of abuse [18]. These drugs increase the risk of serious interactions and may lead to the poisoning of the body. Moreover, there is no information on their packaging about the active ingredients of the products, their dosages and their potential negative side effects. In addition, considerable variation was noted regarding the amount of information provided by online retailers about the mode of use and the health risks of the products they were selling [9]. What is more, these products fall outside pharmaceutical licensing regulations and control, and consequently their quality is not subject to scrutiny. This paper describes some of the selected substances known as "legal highs". It should be noted that the list of species of psychoactive, hallucinogenic and narcotic species, mainly plants and fungi, used to produce highs in the world, is much greater. Moreover, new psychoactive substances that appear require numerous and thorough research, and it is impossible to immediately determine the short- and long-term effects of the use of these substances. Let us hope that most of these substances will be soon under control and will be on the list of controlled substances.