The Impact of the Prohibitionist Model in the Case of 3-Methylmethcathinone: Critical Narrative Review
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Abstract
Introduction: since the mid-twentieth century, the international drug control regime has been based on three United Nations conventions (1961, 1971, and 1988), aiming to reduce the supply and use of psychoactive substances through prohibition. However, this framework has shown clear limitations in addressing the emergence of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), which are designed to evade regulations.
Objective: analyze how the prohibitionist nature of the international drug control system is reflected in the case of 3-methylmethcathinone (3-MMC).
Method: a critical narrative review using 3-MMC as a case study. A non-systematic literature search was conducted in specialized databases on health and drug policy, prioritizing recent literature on the prohibitionist model, the dynamics of psychoactive substance markets, and their impact on the regulation of New Psychoactive Substances.
Results: the findings suggest that the prohibitionist model contributes to the continuous emergence of new and less well-characterized substances, driven by processes of chemical substitution and market adaptation.
Discussion and conclusions: 3-MMC emerged as a substitute for mephedrone, expanded from Asia, and became established in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic, amid supply chain disruptions and the adaptive reconfiguration of illicit drug markets. Its prohibition in the European Union in 2022 did not eliminate the phenomenon but instead displaced production and encouraged the emergence of new analogues such as 2-MMC and 4-CMC, illustrating the so-called “balloon effect.” In this context, a shift toward public health–oriented, harm reduction, and evidence-based approaches appears necessary.
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