NPS: Challenges and Future Outlooks – the Analytical Toxicologists’ Points of View

In recent years, the global market for novel psychoactive substances (NPS) has continued to grow rapidly, presenting significant challenges for analytical toxicologists. Indeed, the constant emergence and the evolving nature of NPS requires their rapid detection and identification; studies on their pharmacokinetics; and ideally the prediction of future analogues to try and stay ahead of the competition with illicit NPS manufacturers. This presentation will provide an overview, from the analytical toxicologists’ point of view, of the current challenges and future outlooks for detecting, identifying, and predicting NPS. It will explore both recent efforts in my group, and what we plan to do in the near future to tackle the emergence of NPS using multidisciplinary approaches. I will discuss the importance of both emerging analytical tools and techniques, including portable instruments, for the rapid and on-site detection and identification of NPS. Finally, I will briefly mention how computational methods could simplify substance identification and aid in predicting the emergence of NPS. It is hoped that some of the described approaches will have positive implications for public health and safety and will create opportunities to promote exchange between various stakeholders, including basic scientists/toxicologists, clinicians, and policy makers.