Synthetic Drugs or New Psychoactive Substances, a Latent Threat without Effective Controls

Abstract

This article presents in a synthetic way considerations about the global, latent and without effective controls threat that represents the arrival of synthetic drugs or new psychoactive substances (NSP, by its acronym in Spanish). This article is based on the qualitative approach, using tools such as document review (official reports, journalistic articles, from universities and governmental and non-governmental organizations, etc.), it starts by detailing basic aspects of the context of drugs of natural and synthetic origin, then focuses on the characterization of drug use, finding the point at which current society and especially young people and children are highly vulnerable, and finally it proposes a series of strategies in order to reduce the cost of NSP.