About the Authors

Safia Sharif

Roles Supervision, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Psychopharmacology, Substance Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom

Suzanne Fergus

Roles Supervision

S.Fergus@herts.ac.uk (SF); Amira.guirguis@swansea.ac.uk (AG)

Affiliation Psychopharmacology, Substance Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom

Amira Guirguis

Roles Supervision

S.Fergus@herts.ac.uk (SF); Amira.guirguis@swansea.ac.uk (AG)

Affiliations Psychopharmacology, Substance Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom

Nigel Smeeton

Roles Formal analysis

Affiliation Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, School of Health and Social Work, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom

Fabrizio Schifano

Roles Supervision

Affiliation Psychopharmacology, Substance Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

FS was a previous (2011–2019) member of the ACMD UK; he is currently a member of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Psychiatry Advisory Board. These memberships did not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.