School of Medicine (Psychology), University of Tasmania, Private Bag 30, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Electronic address: allison.matthews@utas.edu.au.
2 papers in the library · 101 citations · publishing 2014-2017
In 2013, 44% of a sample of 654 regular ecstasy users in Australia had used a new psychoactive substance (NPS) in the past six months. The most common NPS were the hallucinogens 2C-I (14%) and 2C-B (8%). Users of NPS were younger, used a wider variety of drugs more frequently, and were more likely to rate ecstasy purity as low compared to those who did not use NPS. NPS have become a regular part of Australia's recreational drug scene, and monitoring systems need to adapt to track this rapidly changing market.
Frequent psychostimulant consumers in Australia rated stimulant-type new psychoactive substances (NPS), such as mephedrone and methylone, less favorably than ecstasy and cocaine in terms of pleasurable effects and likelihood of future use. DMT, a hallucinogenic tryptamine, showed a similar profile to LSD for pleasurable effects and future use likelihood, but its negative acute and comedown effects were rated lower. Hallucinogenic phenethylamines like 2C-B had a negative profile similar to LSD but were rated as less pleasurable and less likely to be used again. The potential for expanded use of stimulant-type NPS may be lower than for common stimulants, while DMT's potential may be higher relative to LSD due to fewer negative effects.