Abstract: Ob als Aufputschmittel, Partydroge, Doping oder Schlankmacher: Amphetamine und Methamphetamine sind psychoaktive Substanzen, die im beruflichen Alltag und in der Freizeit mehr Leistungsfähigkeit und Wohlbefinden versprechen und daher oft missbräuchlich verwendet werden. Wie wirken Amphetamin und seine Abkömmlinge? Welche unmittelbaren und langfristigen Folgen hat der Amphetaminkonsum? Welche Risiken bestehen? Welche Wege kann die Prävention gehen?

Abstract: Three years after the last global assessment of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS), the manufacture and trafficking of these drugs remains a serious and constantly evolving challenge. The 2011 Global ATS Assessment shines a powerful light on ATS helping governments to better understand this important phenomenon. Once viewed as purely a cottage industry, ATS manufacture and trafficking has undergone its own industrial revolution. After cannabis, ATS are the second most widely used drugs across the globe outstripping the use of heroin or cocaine. ATS are now manufactured and marketed with organized crime groups involved throughout the production and supply chain. Until recently, the ATS trade was sometimes ignored in favour of the traditional focus on heroin and cocaine. But there is growing recognition that the expansion of the ATS trade and its high profits threaten security, health and the welfare of populations across the globe. [...]