Novas substâncias psicoativas no Brasil: principais classes químicas, métodos analíticos e aspectos legais

Abstract

New psychoactive substances (NSP) are synthetic drugs that can be produced in the laboratory and that have effects similar to those of traditional ones, such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and LSD. They are conducted, for the most part, for illegal purposes and with the aim of evading national and international control measures applied to substances already controlled, from which they derive or mimic the effects. If they reached a global phenomenon, and only in the period from 2009 to 2021, the identification of 1,124 new substances was reported, and this number has been increasing frequently, representing an important risk to public health. The objective of this research was to identify and characterize the main classes of NSP in Brazil, as well as chemical identification methods and legal aspects. This is a qualitative narrative review study, in which articles indexed in the PubMed and SciELO databases were analyzed; academic works: monographs, dissertations and theses; official documents and laws; and book chapters in Portuguese and English. The detection and apprehension of NSP are challenges faced by all countries, since sustainable competences generally occur at a much higher speed than their classification in the normative instruments of each country. The presence of NSP is a reality in the Brazilian territory, with a tendency to grow, thus, it is necessary to extend research for the development of methods of identification of these substances, as well as for the constant improvement of legal instruments, to try to contain their salvation and its harmful effects on society.