By Keith Williams, Ph.D. - Business Manager, Analytical Standards Europe, Cayman Chemical

The European Drug Report 2020 compiled by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) was released on 22 September 2020. While the more traditional drugs of abuse continue to dominate, 53 new materials have been reported throughout the year, with cathinones, cannabinoids, and opioids making up the majority of newly reported substances.

The EMCDDA have helpfully provided the graph below illustrating the appearance of the various NPS drug groups between 2008 and 2019. The graph clearly illustrates the peak of 101 notified NPS in 2014 and a drop to approximately 50 in 2017, 2018, and 2019. This suggests we may have reached a plateau with approximately 50 NPS appearing annually. While synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones previously overshadowed other categories, no one group of substances has clearly dominated in the past two years.

Number and Categories of NPS Reported to the EU Early Warning System for the First Time, 2008-2019

Data from the 2020 EMCDDA report, page 43
https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/13236/TDAT20001ENN_web.pdf

Cayman remains a leader in producing reference materials for the scientific community and continually monitors requests for NPS reference materials. The following products have been quickly made available to address the notifications. Our scientists will continue to make progress synthesizing newly identified NPS as quickly as we are aware of a need for reference materials.

NPS Identified in Europe in 2019

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Need help with an unknown? Submit your GC-MS data and any relevant information to techserv@caymanchem.com and our scientists can help you solve it.

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