The lucrative and unregulated market of semi-synthetic cannabinoids is rapidly expanding across Europe, raising public health concerns and posing a legislative challenge to policymakers. The solution lies not in prohibition but in regulation...

The market for semi-synthetic cannabinoids is rapidly changing as legislators try to catch up with producers and distributors, who are always ready to launch chemical substitutes whenever a cannabinoid is added to the list of illicit substances in a country. Sometimes, the differences between these substances in their chemical structure are very minor: an extra hydrogen atom here, an extra carbon atom there. However, these apparently small chemical differences can significantly alter how they bond to the cannabinoid (CB1 and CB2) receptors in the human neural system, thus changing their psychoactive effects. For example, size matters; a longer carbon chain means stronger effects. Drug designers are aware of this when they create new substances.....