Monitoring new psychoactive substances: Exploring the contribution of an online discussion forum
Monitoring new psychoactive substances: Exploring the contribution of an online discussion forum
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DOI：
10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.03.025
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发表时间：
2019-11-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
Esseiva, Pierre
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rhumorbarbe, Damien;Morelato, Marie;Esseiva, Pierre
背景：新型精神活性物质 (NPS) 的迅速出现给公共卫生当局和执法部门带来了挑战。随着互联网使用的增加，这种现象得到加强。网络不仅用于交易 NPS，对于潜在的药品消费者和有经验的用户来说也是一个重要的信息来源。讨论论坛就是这些信息来源之一。它们是不同用户群体的聚会点，包括广泛的旅行报告、问题和消费技巧。由于讨论是长期存档的，因此可以用来监测消费者随着时间的推移对特定物质的兴趣。本研究旨在了解从主要在线讨论论坛提取的数据在系统监测过程中的贡献。方法：从讨论论坛（即药物论坛）收集数据。在论坛的各个部分中，标题、讨论内容、回复数量和第一次讨论的日期都被抓取并存储在专用数据库中。与 42 种被视为新精神活性物质的物质相关的讨论强度是通过一个可评估物质受欢迎程度的指标来衡量的。此外，还将论坛上出现的 15 种物质与正式通知欧盟预警系统的日期进行了比较。结果：突出显示了不同类别物质的演变以及某一类别内特定物质的演变。有些物质讨论了很长一段时间（例如卡痛、25i-NBOMe、MDPV），而另一些物质则讨论得非常简短（例如5-MeO-DPT、NM-2AI）。在接受欧洲毒品和毒瘾监测中心 (EMCDDA) 风险评估的 15 种物质中，其中 9 种在首次向欧盟预警系统通报之前或同时出现在论坛上。结论：与之前对兴奋剂产品的研究一致，本文显示了精神活性物质背景下在线论坛监测的潜力。此外，旨在收集数据的系统非常灵活，可以系统地更新以促进监控过程。它不仅可以告知消费者之间讨论中某种物质是否存在，还可以告知其随时间的演变。这些结果可能有利于学术研究和研究 NPS 现象的组织。准确地说，它可以补充现有的预警系统，并使执法机构和政策制定者受益。
Background: The rapid emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is a challenge for public health authorities and law enforcement. The phenomenon is strengthened since the increase of the Internet usage. Not only used to trade NPS, the Web is an important source of information for both potential drug consumers and experienced users. Discussion forums are among these sources of information. They are meeting points for different groups of users and include a wide range of trip reports, questions and consumption tips. Since the discussions are archived over a long period, they can be used to monitor the interest of consumers for particular substances over time. This research aims at understanding the contribution of data extracted from a major online discussion forum within a systematic monitoring process.Method: Data were collected from a discussion forum (i.e. Drugs-forum). Within the sections of the forum, the titles, content of discussion, number of replies, and the date of the first discussion were crawled and stored in a dedicated database. The intensity of the discussions related to 42 substances considered as NPS was measured through an indicator allowing to assess the popularity of substances. Furthermore, the appearance of 15 substances on the forum was compared to the date of formal notification to the EU early warning system.Results: An evolution of the different classes of substances, as well as an evolution of specific substances within a class were highlighted. Some substances were discussed for a long period of time (e.g. Kratom, 25i-NBOMe, MDPV) while others were discussed very briefly (e.g. 5-MeO-DPT, NM-2AI). Out of the fifteen substances subjected to a risk assessment from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), nine of them appeared on the forum before or at the same time as their first date of notification to the EU early warning system.Conclusion: In line with previous research on doping products, this article shows the potential of the monitoring of online forums in the context of psychoactive substances. Besides, the system designed to collect the data is flexible and can be systematically updated to fuel a monitoring process. It informs not only on the presence/ absence of a substance in discussions between consumers, but also on its evolution over time. Such results could benefit academic research and organizations studying the NPS phenomenon. Precisely, it could complement existing early warning systems and benefit law enforcement agencies and policy makers.