This is the first textbook to undertake a comprehensive, in-depth review of the literature relating to novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and club drug harms and their clinical management. The book builds on the work of the NEPTUNE project, which has been reviewing the evidence on this fast-moving area for the last decade. Some predicted that NPS would be a short-lived phenomenon; however, drug markets continue to rapidly evolve with new, and typically more harmful, substances appearing with alarming frequency. The increased role of the Internet and social media platforms to sell drugs, including NPS and club drugs, is a further example of the pace of change.

At the time of writing, the range of substances available on drug markets has never been wider. While NPS have not replaced existing illegal drugs, they are now established throughout drug markets both in terms of substances that people seek to use, as well as substances that are used to adulterate other drugs, including counterfeit medications, with sometimes catastrophic results. The mortality resulting from adulteration of illegal drugs with opioid NPS such as fentanyl analogues, is a devastating example.