Associate Professor Chris Wilkins

New Zealand has experienced successive waves of 'legal highs' containing new psychoactive substances (NPS), including party pills and synthetic cannabis. NPS are popular among young people and have been responsible for increased emergency department admissions, poisonings and mental health admissions. The Government has recently established the world's first pre-market approval regulatory regime for NPS which will allow NPS products assessed as 'low risk' to be legally manufactured and sold. This study will investigate the impact the new NPS regulatory regime has on NPS and other drug use, drug-related harm, substitution between NPS and other drugs, and utilisation of health services among 'at risk' young people. It employs an innovative web-based respondent driven sample (RDS) methodology to survey hard-to-reach frequent partying young people. This is the first of a planned eight surveys to be conducted over the next four years. It will collect important baseline data on recent changes to laws concerning the sale of legal highs and the consequences for substance use of young people. The study findings will evaluate and inform key aspects of the new regulatory regime, including the risk of approved NPS products and effectiveness of retail restrictions and standards.