Exploring Innovative Policy Responses to NPS and ‘Legal Highs’ in New Zealand, Poland, Republic of Ireland and the UK

A number of countries, including New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Ireland and the UK, have experienced particularly dynamic markets for novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and, as a result, have responded with innovative legislative and policy approaches. Poland, Ireland and recently the UK have imposed broad catch-all definitions of psychoactive products in order to impose blanket bans on all current and future psychoactive products. There is some evidence from Poland and Ireland to suggest these approaches may have reduced the use and harm from NPS over a number of months. However, sellers and users adapted to these controls over time by purchasing NPS from international websites and from the black market, resulting in increasing use. Furthermore, the banning of many original NPS compounds may have resulted in the use of more toxic replacement compounds. In contrast, New Zealand adopted a pre-market approval regulatory regime for psychoactive products, similar to the regimes commonly operated for medicines, in an attempt to undermine the grey market for high-risk products, ensure products available on the legal market were low risk, and provide consumers with accurate information about the potency, ingredients and risks of products. The implementation of this new regime proved to be controversial and, following ongoing reports of adverse effects from products and social nuisance around retail outlets, was brought to an abrupt halt. While the legislation for this regime remains in force, no further product approvals have been made, and it is unclear whether there is political will to continue with this innovative approach.