The last decade of the 20th century saw a decrease in the prevalence of illicit substance use. The results of the IPiN study (ESPAD) and the CBOS Foundation (Youth) revealed lower drug use prevalence rates in 2003-2007 and 2008.

A substantial improvement in the epidemiological area as well as health and security of both problem and occasional drug users was recorded in the Polish drug policy. However, these positive trends have been challenged in recent years by new developments, of which the most visible one has become the trade in new psychoactive substances (NPS), commonly known in Poland as ‘dopalacze’ (literally translated as afterburners) and ‘legal highs’ or ‘designer drugs’ in Western European literature, though these are not scientific terms. They started to be used colloquially and across the media to denote a whole range of substances or products with alleged or real psychoactive effects. These drugs might be of natural or synthetic origin and their distingushing feature is the fact that they are not listed as controlled substances according to either international or national laws.