This one-page report provides an overview of the year 2021, and the emergence and landscape of novel psychoactive substances; it provides bar charts and graphs that break down novel psychoactive substances by subclass.
This document provides cumulative and updated statistics about the emergence and landscape of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) in the United States, based on data developed by NPS Discovery at the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education (CFSRE), a premier open-access drug early warning system utilizing an evidence-based approach to disseminate information for real-time public health and safety actions. The report notes that since 2018, NPS Discovery has reported 116 novel NPS in the U.S., and that NPS opioids are still the largest subclass. Other subclasses include: stimulants; opioid precursors; hallucinogens; cannabinoids; benzodiazepines; and miscellaneous. The charts presented in the report depict breakdowns of newly discovered NPS reported since 2018; individual NPS detected each year from 2018 through 2021; total number of NPS detections among all analyzed samples; and cumulative numbers of NPS detected since 2018, ending with 2021.