The 2013 International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) conference featured a session on the impact of new psychoactive drugs on traffic safety. NIDA International Program Director Steven W. Gust, Ph.D., and Marilyn A. Huestis, Ph.D., NIDA Intramural Research Program, co-chaired the session and described the rapid emergence of these designer drugs. By mid-2013, more than 90 nations had reported that new psychoactive substances were available in their countries, with the 351 new drugs far exceeding the 234 substances controlled under international treaties. Other speakers addressed:
- Driver intoxication attributed to the use of synthetic cannabinoids
- Trends in new psychoactive substances identified by the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction
- Efforts to develop urinalysis methods to identify synthetic cannabinoids in humans.
The ICADTS conference was held August 25–29, 2013, in Brisbane, Australia. The conference proceedings are available here.