Published The motivation for using Novel Psychoactive Substances - Survey

Since doctors have such a phobia prescribing proven, save, working drugs (like benzos), we have to risk our health to get what we can. Some of us NEED psychoactive medication. Well, its important to keep the docs feeling important.
 
Nice... wouldn't let me use "not at all" in the motivation spectrum. Had to bump that slider a little to hit next.

As stated in the text above the slider, you can move it all the way to "not at all" once you have touched it. We had to implement a validation so we would know that an all the way to the left response was an actual response and not a missed answer.
 
The survey is now closed. Thank you for participating and contributing! We will soon start the analysis process. I will keep you updated in this thread.
 
Survey has finished, my list is (Every Rc benzo), salvia, synthecaine, Mpa, loads synthetic cannabnoids mainly sts 135 , bb22 clockwork orange, all the cannabnoids except sts135, gave me fits or psychosis. Bk-2-CB, that is like comparable to lsa or lsd depending on dose. Had the most insane trip on bk2cb of my life, was mixed with 2g synthicaine and 7 zolpidem, got lost in caves and forests for 16 hours all through the night without a jacket. Ended up in graveyard thinking i was dead! Then theres Kratom everyday around 7-12gram a day in capsules. These have helped me tremendously give up certain meds and helps major depression, pain, and controlling my opiate habit to a considerable degree.
legal highs in my opinion are way way more dangerous, totally untested and probably done me alot of damage to my organs.My friend smoked mmb chimna or similar and had a grand mal seizute from one puff hes damaged his kidneys and mine are bad too. Stay clear of legal highs please!
 
The study results have now been published - open access too, so you can all check out the full article.

The users of Novel Psychoactive Substances: online survey about the characteristics, attitudes and motivations

ABSTRACT:

Background

The increasing number of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) constitutes a challenge for public health agencies and researchers worldwide. Scientific studies about NPS and their users are limited and there is a need to explore the general motivations for NPS use but also to examine if and how the motivations differ between substances from separate effect classes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics, including attitudes and motivations, of a self-selected sample of international NPS users.

Methods

An online survey containing questions about drug use history, attitudes, motivations for use, and WHO-5 Wellbeing Index was promoted at the drug discussion forum bluelight.org. The data was analysed using SPSS.

Results

The sample consisted of 619 international NPS users with overall good emotional well-being despite extensive experience of both traditional and novel drugs. The main incentive for use of NPS in general was pleasure and enjoyment. However, going beyond the general approach to NPS revealed significant variations between drug groups. For example, the use of hallucinogens was substantially motivated by self-exploration and spiritual attainment and showed very low levels of addiction potential while the use of opioids and especially GABA activating substances was mainly motivated by coping and showed much higher levels of addiction potential. Synthetic cannabinoids were the least appreciated and least likely to be used again, and were mainly motivated by circumstances such as availability and legality.

Conclusion

Understanding the different motivations for NPS use in terms of drug groups could enable more effective prevention and consequently a reduction in harm.

I'd like to especially thank Christophe for working with Bluelight on this project. We really enjoyed it and am glad to see the findings available to the community too :)
 
Hello everyone!

More study results have now been published as open access so you all can read the full second article.

The diverse reasons for using Novel Psychoactive Substances - A qualitative study of the users' own perspectives

Background: The increasing number of legally ambiguous and precarious Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) constitutes a challenge for policy makers and public health. Scientific and more in-depth knowledge about the motivations for using NPS is scarce and often consist of predetermined, non- systematic, or poorly described reasons deduced from top-down approaches. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore and characterize the users’ self-reported reasons for NPS use inductively and more comprehensively.

Methods: The self-reported reasons of a self-selected sample of 613 international NPS users were collected via an online survey promoted at the international drug discussion forum bluelight.org and later analyzed qualitatively using inductive thematic analysis.

Results: The analysis showed that the participants used NPS because these compounds reportedly: 1) enabled safer and more convenient drug use, 2) satisfied a curiosity and interest about the effects, 3) facilitated a novel and exciting adventure, 4) promoted self-exploration and personal growth, 5) functioned as coping agents, 6) enhanced abilities and performance, 7) fostered social bonding and belonging, and 8 acted as a means for recreation and pleasure. The consumption of NPS was also driven by 9) problematic and unintentional use.

Conclusion: The present study contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the users’ own and self-reported reasons for using NPS, which needs to be acknowledged not only in order to minimize drug related harm and drug user alienation but also to improve prevention efforts and reduce the potentially counter-intuitive effects of strictly prohibitive policies.

 
Bit late, but the NPS most relevant to my use (I'm 60), is methoxetamine. It's actually the drug I designed as a replacement for ketamine, for treating phantom limb pain, with much reduced bladder damage and a reduced likelihood of the dissociative experience scaring the shit out of the recipient.
 
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