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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Color Spot Test As a Presumptive Tool for the Rapid Detection of Synthetic Cathinones
Published on: February 5, 2018
Drugs on the web; the Psychonaut 2002 EU project
Fabrizio Schifano1, Paolo Deluca, Alex Baldacchino
1Division of Mental Health-Addictive Behaviour, St. George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London, SW17 0RE, UK.
Purpose:
Only a few formal assessments of websites with drug-related contents have been carried out. We aimed here at fostering collection and analysis of data from web pages related to information on consumption, manufacture and sales of psychoactive substances.
General Methods:
An 8-language, two-engine, assessment of the information available in a purposeful sample of 1633 unique websites was carried out.
Findings:
A pro-drug and a harm reduction approach were evident, respectively, in 18% and 10% of websites accessed. About 1 in 10 websites offered either psychoactive compounds for sale or detailed data on drugs' synthesis/extraction procedures. Information on a number of psychoactive substances and on unusual drugs' combinations not found in the Medline was elicited.
Conclusions:
This represents the first review which is both comprehensive and multilingual of the online available information on psychoactive compounds. Health professionals may need to be aware of the web being a new drug resource for information and possibly purchase.
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