Early Warning Systems

Rapid Detection

Drug early warning systems collect data from hospitals, poison centers, police seizures, customs, forensic labs, and user reports to spot unusual or harmful substances appearing on the market.

A drug early warning system (also known as a DEWS) is a monitoring and information-sharing framework designed to quickly detect, assess, and respond to emerging drug-related threats. These systems are usually run by governments, health agencies, or international organizations to track new psychoactive substances (NPS), changes in drug markets, and patterns of misuse that could pose health risks. There are many different drug early warning systems available to the public which can help reduce or even eliminate the threats posed by NPSs and changes in the drug markets.

Key features of drug early warning systems can be found below:

Risk Assessment

Drug early warning systems evaluate the potential harm of newly detected substances (e.g., toxicity, addictive potential, links to overdoses, etc). In doing so, these early warning systems allow officials to respond properly to emerging threats on the drug markets.

Information Sharing

Drug early warning systems alert public health officials, clinicians, law enforcement, and in some cases (such as those which will be listed here shortly) the public about new drugs or dangerous batches in circulation.

Policy Support

Drug early warning systems provide evidence to guide decisions on scheduling substances, public health responses, and harm-reduction measures.

Links to DEWS available to the public

The following are links to drug early warning systems available to the public. Self-admittedly, they may initially be a little bit too sophisticated and technical for many of those who use, or have used, drugs. However, if one spends a sufficient amount of time exploring these resources, signing up for alerts, reading publications, and cross referencing outside materials then the bigger picture will begin to make much more sense (as will all of the interesting technical details about the substances themselves.) Additionally, if there are any questions regarding the interpretation of the information available via the early warning systems, feel free to reach out via the contact information available in the contact section of the website and we will be more than happy to assist you in understanding the complexities of the information presented in a way that makes sense to you.

And, if one is not so inclined, then I have also provided a much less technical resource as well that may well save your life, or the life of loved ones who do partake in psychoactive substances. These more simplistic early warning systems are designed a little bit differently and function more specifically to alert users and harm reductionists alike to batches of drugs circulating in the community which have been linked to overdose deaths in ones local community. While not entirely accepted by most mainstream treatment centers, there is a lot of traction being gained for such and I even recently had found a stack of promotional flyers for one of them at a local treatment center when I was there educating both clients and clinicians alike about nitazenes and providing them with test strips.

The Americas (USA, Canada, Mexico, and South America)
The Early Warning System of the Americas (aka SATA)
National Drug Early Warning System (United States of America)
Canadian Drug and Substance Watch

Europe/United Kingdom
The EU Early Warning System on New Psychoactive Substances
Welsh Emerging Drugs and Identification of Novel Substances (aka WEDINOS)
Early Warning and Emerging Trends Network (aka EWET Network - Ireland)
Trans-European Drug Information Network (aka TEDI Network)

Simplistic Early Warning System for Ohioans (Bad Batch Alert)
The SOAR Initiative - Receive text alerts when there is a spike in overdoses or dangerous drugs in your community