Recent Changes in Drug Abuse Scenario: The Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) Phenomenon

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The NPS crisis in british prisons

The use of NPS in prisons has become ‘the biggest issue we currently face from a prisoner health perspective’ in the United Kingdom (UK; CSJ, 2015). Professionals working with prison populations have been increasingly challenged by the recent dramatic increase in the number of self-harm episodes, assaults between prisoners, and attacks on staff related to the use of these substances (Ralphs, Williams, Askew, & Norton, 2017 Blackman & Bradley, 2017 ). In 2018, over 44,000 cases of self-harm in prisons were reported in England and Wales, refl ecting a record high in the 12 months to December 2017, following substantial year-on-year increases (Ministry of Justice, 2018. Of people detained in police custody, 16% reported current suicidal thoughts; 86% of this group reported a history of self-harm or suicide attempts (Forrester et al., 2016).The spread of NPS use in prison has also been linked to a dramatic increase in attacks on staff, which has reached almost eight and a half thousand annual episodes, up 23% from the previous year. Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults have also continued to increase, reaching a record high of 29,485 incidents in the 12 months to December 2017 (Ministry of Justice, 2018). In the three years up to 2016, a total of 79 deaths and two homicides have been explicitly linked to the use of NPS ( Newcomen, 2016a )