The phenomenon of new psychoactive substances (NPS), which came to the attention of the wider international community at the beginning of the 2010s, has been unprecedented in terms of the sheer number of substances, their rate of emergence, chemical diversity, and range of pharmacological effects. In particular, the chemical diversity has been a challenge to promoting a better understanding of the NPS market - a fundamental requirement for effective policy decisions and interventions. This manuscript highlights the significant chemical diversity of NPS and describes an alternative, complementary, and pragmatic classification based on pharmacological effects, which aligns NPS to traditional controlled drugs and enhances understanding of the phenomenon. It further reviews actions taken at the international level to address the NPS issue, including changes in the scope of control of some NPS and the enhancement of the United Nations Early Warning Advisory on NPS to deal with the dynamics and evolution of the market.
The past decade has seen an increase in the development and availability of a broad category of drugs, known as new psychoactive substances (NPS). NPS are challenging for public health authorities, therefore the two major drug monitoring bodies -the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) -have implemented the EU Early Warning System (EWS) and Early Warning Advisory (EWA), respectively. While these monitoring systems are informative, it is difficult to keep up with the constant and rapid developmental rate of NPS. The EMCDDA has recognised the need for an alternative and technologically derived early warning system. The aim of this research is to determine whether Google Trends and drug discussion forum data can be used to complement early warning systems for NPS.Forty-eight substances were used in this study and classed into groups based on their chemical structure, following the UNODC classification system. Google Trends data (time range: 2004-2019) and drug forum data (time range: 2003-2018) were extracted for each substance and visual trend profiles were created for class groups as well as individual substances. Analysis was conducted to determine when a substance first appeared on Google Trends and a drug discussion forum as well as their trends over time. This date of first appearance was then compared to the date the substance was first reported to UNODC.Of the three data sources utilised, substances were most likely to appear on Google Trends first. Amongst the different classes of NPS, discernible trends ('block', 'successive', and 'generational' trends) were observed. These trends reflect the evolution of the manufacture of substances or generations of substances that has been observed in the literature. For example, in the synthetic cannabinoids' category, a generational trend is observed that corresponds to the different generations of synthetic cannabinoids. When comparing Google Trends and Drugs-Forum directly, the order of appearance and duration of presence for substances aligns accurately for most classes.Google Trends showed the emergence, persistence, or transient nature of substances, which could direct the focus of law enforcement, health organisation and laboratory resources towards a limited number of substances. When one considers the reliance of individual information seeking on the Web as well as the prominence of NPS on the Web, it becomes clear that Google Trends and drug discussion forums could be used as a complement to current early warning systems.
14Nepal ist eines der am wenigsten verstädterten Länder der Erde. In den letzten Jahrzehnten nahm der Anteil der städtischen Bevölkerung an der Gesamtbevölkerung jedoch rasch zu, von 3% Anfang der fünfziger Jahre auf 15% im Jahr 2000 (KC 1998, eigene Berechnung). Der Verstädterungsprozeß betrifft nicht das ganze Land gleichermaßen, sondern ist regional fast ausschließlich auf das südliche Terai-Flachland -den nepalesischen Teil der Gangesebene -und die Agglomeration der Hauptstadt Kathmandu im Bergland beschränkt. Während sich im Kathmandu-Tal eine polyzentrische Stadtregion mit über 1 Million Einwohnern entwickelt hat, sind im Terai hauptsächlich Klein-und Mittelstädte zu finden. Beim letzten Zensus 1991 befanden sich 24 der damals 33 Städte Nepals im Terai (CENTRAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS 1994). Die meisten dieser Klein-und Mittelstädte liegen am East-West Highway, der einzigen durchgehenden Ost-West-Verbindung in Nepal, sowie an den Grenzübergängen nach Indien. Auch dort, wo der East-West Highway auf Nord-Süd-verlaufende Straßen trifft, die die nördlich angrenzenden Bergregion erschließen, haben sich städtische Siedlungen entwickelt. Heute gibt es in Nepal insgesamt 58 städtische Siedlungen mit Stadtstatus (s. Abb. 1). Welche Chancen und Probleme entstehen in einer solchen Phase der raschen Verstädterung für den Aufbau einer regionalen Planung? Welche Aufgaben können die neu entstandenen, expandierenden Städte dabei übernehmen? Bislang gibt es in Nepal noch keine Regionalplanung im Sinn einer eigenständigen Planungskompetenz -neue Ansätze sind daher gefragt.
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