Natural Psychoactive Substances: Users’ Subjective Assessment of Health Risks and Control Measures (the Case of Russia)

In connection with the decriminalization or even legalization of natural substances, in particular cannabis, in countries such as Canada and the Netherlands, their consumption is increasing. Drug use was previously considered a deviation, but now there is a change and liberalization of attitudes towards cannabis use, the term “controlled use” is increasingly used in scientific researches. However, do consumers really control it? The purpose of this work is to highlight the main risks faced by cannabis users in the Russian Federation against the background of their use, as well as to outline the main ways to control such risks. The main question of this work is how exactly how users manage to combine the use of illegal psychoactive substances with a “normal” life and whether they really do it. We assume that due to the development of a risk control apparatus, people normalize the use of illicit substances, in particular cannabis.