UN warning over legal 'designer drugs' "This is an alarming drug problem - but the drugs are legal," it said. Sold openly, including via the internet, NPS (new psychoactive substances), which have not been tested for safety, can be far more dangerous than traditional drugs. These drugs, which could be synthetic or plant-based and could be easily altered to create new ones, were now outpacing efforts to control or ban them, it said. Use of such substances by youths in the United States appears to be more than twice as widespread as the United Kingdom. New psychoactive substances can be made by slightly modifying the molecular structure of controlled drugs, making a new drug with similar effects that can elude national and international bans. "The international drug control system is floundering, for the first time, under the speed and creativity of the phenomenon" of this type of substances, the report said. Overall, global drug consumption has remained stable, while the number those paying the ultimate price and dying drug-related incidents was 211,000.