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Legal Controls of Psychoactive Substances in Europe

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Handbuch Psychoaktive Substanzen

Part of the book series: Springer Reference Psychologie ((SRP))

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Abstract

The more powerful psychoactive substances have been controlled due to the harms they cause to public health. Those that were found in certain regions of the world have been controlled by international treaties, limiting their use to medical and scientific purposes. The treaties also established a system to carefully assess the benefits and harms of new substances and control them accordingly; control is then enforced by criminal penalties at national level. This established system is now under pressure due to globalisation and the internet, with two new substances found in Europe every week, and countries look for new ways to control substances quickly without the need to prove a public health threat. In some countries, “psychoactive” moves towards becoming a synonym for “harmful”; in others, supply of low-risk substances for non-medical use is now permitted.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. EMCDDA, Lisbon, Portugal

    Brendan Hughes, Michael Evans-Brown & Roumen Sedefov

Authors
  1. Brendan Hughes
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  2. Michael Evans-Brown
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  3. Roumen Sedefov
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brendan Hughes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. FINDER academy and research , Berlin, Germany

    Maximilian von Heyden

  2. FINDER academy and research , Berlin, Germany

    Henrik Jungaberle

  3. St. Hedwig Krankenhaus, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin St. Hedwig Krankenhaus, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Tomislav Majić

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© 2016 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland

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Hughes, B., Evans-Brown, M., Sedefov, R. (2016). Legal Controls of Psychoactive Substances in Europe. In: von Heyden, M., Jungaberle, H., Majić, T. (eds) Handbuch Psychoaktive Substanzen. Springer Reference Psychologie . Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55214-4_15-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55214-4_15-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-55214-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Referenz Psychologie

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