As a result of tightening of legislation in the field of illegal drugs, in the early 2000s, new psychoactive substances began to replace illegal drugs (cocaine, amphetamines, etc.) on the market. They are usually their structural and functional analogues, or newly synthesized substances, created to imitate effects of illegal drugs. Synthetic cathinones are the second largest group of the new psychoactive substances, monitored by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The purpose of this master's thesis was to perform a detailed analysis of synthetic cathinones, their incidence and prevalence in Europe, including Slovenia, between the years 2005 and 2022.
The European Database on New Drugs has been the main source of data in the master's thesis. Additional information was found in other publicly available scientific literature. For this purpose, several databases (ScienceDirect, Springer, PubMed) were used. PubChem database was used for the reviewal of chemical structure of synthetic cathinones. Chemical structures of synthetic cathinones were drawn, using the ChemDraw program.
We found, that from the first entry, in 2005, until the end of 2022, 167 synthetic cathinones have been entered into the European Database on New Drugs. The number of newly discovered synthetic cathinones in Europe started to significantly increase in 2010, with 14 newly identified, reaching its peak in 2014 with the discovery of 31 new synthetic cathinones. Since 2015, the number of newly discovered synthetic cathinones has been consistently decreasing, with 5 identified in 2022. 8 synthetic cathinones were newly discovered in Slovenia, between the years 2005 and 2022, which, per million inhabitants, places it at the very top of Europe. Since the beginning of the database management, a total of 62 synthetic cathinones have appeared in Slovenia. Although most synthetic cathinones are still not regulated by law, 14 are already classified as controlled drugs, and are, as such, on the list of prohibited drugs in most countries. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has placed three synthetic cathinones on the intensively monitored list until the end of 2022, due to their increased occurrence in Europe and serious health threats. A risk assessment has been prepared for 5 synthetic cathinones, which, according to the European Unio Commission, pose the greatest risk to health.
In the research, we were interested in the types of sample acquisition in Europe; these may be seizured, collected by users or obtained from biological material. We found that in the member states, most samples were seized by law enforcement authorities. There were the fewest biological samples (blood and urine samples), which are obtained in the case of poisoning or in postmortem remains. We have examined the reports on synthetic cathinones reported in Europe between 2005 and 2022. The most frequently reported synthetic cathinones were 3-MMC (145 reports), followed by mephedrone (72 reports) and 4-CMC (63 reports). Popularity of synthetic cathinones has been growing rapidly in the last two decades, so monitoring their prevalence and taking timely action is crucial to limiting the damage they pose to public health and society.
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