Risk assessment of new psychoactive substances - EMCDDA - Europa

Chapter 5Assessing the risks relative to other substancesIn a final appraisal of the health and social risks in relation to the use of,manufacture of, and traffic in the new psychoactive substance, and the involvementof organised crime and the possible consequences of control measures, it is oftenvery informative to make comparisons with other licit or illicit substances. For this,a method for quantifying these risks can be very helpful. However, few attemptshave been made to introduce a quantitative method (van Amsterdam et al., 2004;Nutt et al., 2007).The use of a quantitative method is not obligatory, as the Council Decision doesnot describe in detail how such risks should be assessed. A methodology to aidthe risk assessment derived from experience in the Netherlands and the UK hasbeen annexed to these guidelines as a useful tool (see Annex II). Further progressin this field should be monitored for state-of-the-art knowledge.43