"Legal highs" in Romania: historical and present facts

Abstract

In the modern history of our country, the subject of psychoactive substances was banned as being against the socialist-communist political ideology, and consequently the research and knowledge on the historical evolution of the use of plants and substances for medical, hedonistic and/or ritual purposes in our country was not given any encouragement. In this context of a diluted and outdated knowledge on the psychoactive substances which had been maintained for decades, the explosion of the drug addiction phenomenon encountered an idealistic perception ("it is a problem of the Western world", "we are just a transit country", etc.), which lead to a fast increase in the number of young people who tried to consume illegal drugs. The political/administrative organisations, the civil society, the NGOs and particularly the scientific experts in Romania had all a very slow and laggard response, which has lead to the current situation when drug addiction is finally recognized as a very serious issue. Particular features of the Romanian phenomenon-surprisingly not due to the local tradition or spontaneous flora (as long as currently marketed products are imported)-are presented in this publication, giving examples from the criminal investigation experience. An alarming issue which has been highlighted by our research points to the fact that "classical drugs", such as opioids, methadone, ketamine, MDMA, are likely to be used in Romania for "spicing up" the so-called "legal" marketed products. In the following, we shall trace the historical evolution of the use of plants and substances for medical, hedonistic and/or ritual purposes in our country. We shall also reflect on the related legislative and medical issues, and the suggested measures.

Characteristics of psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with mental and behavioral disorders caused by psychoactive substances (F11-19 block), with a focus on NPS and psychiatric co-morbidities

“…It was found that NPS users, more often than non-NPS users, were admitted to hospital through emergency, which indirectly confirms the observations of other re-study by Sutherland et al [22], in which a similar group was described (regular psychostimulant users), with 41.9% of respondents reporting NPS use. In Europe, NPS have been reported mostly among heavy drug users, specifically in Hungary and Poland [20,28,29]. A Polish survey reported that 15% of the clients of needle and syringe programs marked NPS as their "most problematic substance," while 12% had used mephedrone in the month preceding the survey, and 14% had used other NPS [30].…”

Drugs of abuse identified in the National Institute of Legal Medicine Mina Minovici Bucharest 2010

“…The number of cases are similar with the ones obtained in the last years; for example for example in 2009 in living persons out toxicology lab gave 35 positive results for drugs of abuse (17 opiates, 7 THC, 3 ketamine, 8 -others); in 2010 we find a decrease in the number of opiates cases (14 cases) and a marked increase in the number of TCH cases (17). A phenomenon becoming increasingly more prevalent in the last 1-2 years is a shift from "classical drugs" to "legal highs" [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…However, in almost all cases in which legal highs were considered to be involved in thanatogenesys (as suggested by clinical investigation or crime scene investigation), we were able to find classical high-risk drugs lik opiates, ketamine, etc. The main causes for this phenomenon, after Gorun et al are: (1) sprinkling drugs bought from "legal shops" with high risk drugs, or (2) a concomitant or successive use of legal highs and classical drugs of abuse [8].…”

Drug related deaths between 2008 and 2011. A retrospective study in 32 Romanian counties

“…By only comparing the first ten months, the difference is also extremely high (70 cases in the last ten months of 2010). The most likely explanation is an increased use of legal highs (herbal highs, "legal" drugs) [15][16][17][18], but better preventive measures may play a part as well. DRDs associated with legal highs were not identified.…”