[Legislation of New Psychoactive Substances in the Netherlands]

Every year dozens of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) appear for the first time on the drug market. Many of them will never find their way to a user group. If they do and a NPS is banned because of its harmfulness, a legal variant subsequently appears on the market. That is why more and more countries are opting for a so-called generic legislation, whereby entire groups of NPS are banned in advance. In this way, the Netherlands also wants to restrict the production, trade and availability of NPS and send out a signal that their use is not without risk. The question is what the effectiveness of such an approach will be and what unintended side effects it will have. In any case, it is essential to continue to monitor the market and the use of NPS by means of various indicators and to continue to focus on prevention and providing information about the risks.