| Summary: | A feature of human culture is that we can learn to consume chemical compounds,
derived from natural plants or synthetic fabrication, for their psychoactive effects. These
drugs change the mental state and/or the behavioral performance of an individual and
can be instrumentalized for various purposes. After the emergence of a novel psychoactive
substance (NPS) and a period of experimental consumption, personal and medical
benefits and harm potential of the NPS can be estimated on evidence base. This may
lead to a legal classification of the NPS, which may range from limited medical use,
controlled availability up to a complete ban of the drug form publically accepted use.
With these measures, however, a drug does not disappear, but frequently continues to
be used, which eventually allows an even better estimate of the drug 19s properties. Thus,
only in rare cases, there is a final verdict that is no more questioned. Instead, the view on
a drug can change from tolerable to harmful but may also involve the new establishment
of a desired medical application to a previously harmful drug. Here, we provide a summary
review on a number of NPS for which the neuropharmacological evaluation has
made important progress in recent years. They include mitragynine ( 1CKratom 1D), synthetic
cannabinoids (e.g., 1CSpice 1D), dimethyltryptamine and novel serotonergic hallucinogens,
the cathinones mephedrone and methylone, ketamine and novel dissociative drugs,
;3-hydroxybutyrate, ;3-butyrolactone, and 1,4-butanediol. This review shows not only
emerging harm potentials but also some potential medical applications.
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