Novel Psychoactives and The New Drug Landscape: A Conversation with Dr Caroline Copeland

Today, we’re diving into an increasingly urgent and complex area
of frontline medicine: novel psychoactive substances and
synthetic drugs. Over the past decade, the drug landscape has
shifted dramatically.


Potent synthetics, unpredictable chemical variants, and rapidly
evolving supply chains are creating new clinical challenges for
ambulance crews, HEMS teams, and frontline responders. These
substances don’t play by traditional rules; presentations can be
extreme, toxidromes atypical, and responses to treatment
unpredictable.


To help us understand this shifting landscape, I’m joined byDr
Caroline Copeland, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology and Toxicology
at King’s College London and Director of the National Programme
on Substance Use Mortality.


Caroline is one of the UK’s leading experts in drug-related
harms, combining pharmacology, epidemiology, and innovative data
science to better understand emerging substances and their
real-world impact. She advises national bodies, contributes to
the ACMD’s Novel Psychoactive Substances Committee, and leads
national surveillance programmes shaping policy and practice.


Today, she helps us unpack what clinicians need to know, what’s
changing, and how we can better protect patients in a rapidly
evolving drug landscape. Caroline's work and publications can be
found here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/caroline-copeland





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