Fentanyl analogs on the Swedish webforum flashback: Interest and impact of scheduling.
Fentanyl
NPS
Sweden
Synthetic opioids
Journal
The International journal on drug policy
ISSN: 1873-4758
Titre abrégé: Int J Drug Policy
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 9014759
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 2021
01 2021
Historique:
received:
15
06
2020
revised:
11
10
2020
accepted:
13
10
2020
pubmed:
13
11
2020
medline:
29
7
2021
entrez:
12
11
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Sweden regulates new psychoactive substances, including fentanyl analogs, individually. This reactive scheduling procedure enabled the existence of a recreational market for unscheduled fentanyl analogs sold from surface webshops. We measure the interest in 24 named fentanyl analogs and the impact of scheduling. We scraped posts in threads on named fentanyl analogs from the Swedish internet forum Flashback.org, 2012-2019. The sample consists of 24 threads with a total of 8761 posts. We construct five measures of interest based on duration of threads, number of posts, and number of distinct posters, and fit a non-seasonal ARMA model to test if there was a change in mean activity after scheduling. Across the five measures, there was most interest in acryl fentanyl, butyr fentanyl, and acetyl fentanyl. The number of daily posts was significantly reduced in nine out of 13 threads after scheduling. The scheduling of fentanyl analogs impacted interest on Flashback.org. The biggest effect sizes were from the narcotics scheduling of 2-Me-MAF, acryl, and acetyl fentanyl, while furanyl fentanyl saw the biggest reduction after health scheduling. The reductions were bigger for narcotics scheduling compared to health scheduling.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
Sweden regulates new psychoactive substances, including fentanyl analogs, individually. This reactive scheduling procedure enabled the existence of a recreational market for unscheduled fentanyl analogs sold from surface webshops. We measure the interest in 24 named fentanyl analogs and the impact of scheduling.
METHODS
We scraped posts in threads on named fentanyl analogs from the Swedish internet forum Flashback.org, 2012-2019. The sample consists of 24 threads with a total of 8761 posts. We construct five measures of interest based on duration of threads, number of posts, and number of distinct posters, and fit a non-seasonal ARMA model to test if there was a change in mean activity after scheduling.
RESULTS
Across the five measures, there was most interest in acryl fentanyl, butyr fentanyl, and acetyl fentanyl. The number of daily posts was significantly reduced in nine out of 13 threads after scheduling.
CONCLUSION
The scheduling of fentanyl analogs impacted interest on Flashback.org. The biggest effect sizes were from the narcotics scheduling of 2-Me-MAF, acryl, and acetyl fentanyl, while furanyl fentanyl saw the biggest reduction after health scheduling. The reductions were bigger for narcotics scheduling compared to health scheduling.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33181448
pii: S0955-3959(20)30351-0
doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103013
pii:
doi:
Substances chimiques
Analgesics, Opioid
0
Narcotics
0
Fentanyl
UF599785JZ
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
103013Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.