Internet map will trace new drugs
A consultant psychiatrist from St George’s Hospital, London, is
to map drug abuse-related websites throughout the world in order to give
health professionals more up-to-date information than they can find from
legitimate sources.
Dr Fabrizio Schifano is to collect and analyse data from websites related
to the design and sale of recreational and illicit substances because
the newest versions come into use before health professional know anything
about them and how to treat patients suffering adverse effects. “We
will identify the emerging trends in new drugs and mixtures of drugs at
the regional and European levels,” said Dr Schifano. “An early
warning system will also be developed by collecting data on the virtual
drugs market. We hope this will help ease public threats linked to the
newest drugs.”
St George’s Hospital is to be the co-ordinating centre for the project,
called Psychonaut 2002, which is being undertaken collaboratively with
researchers from nine other European countries.
Meanwhile, the latest drug data, to be released by St George’s Hospital
later this month, show that deaths from drug abuse are increasing. Many
of these deaths are the result of injecting a cocktails of drugs.
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