[10][11] Naphyrone emerged as a new legal high in the United Kingdom only months after the ban of similar drug mephedrone (which was also a cathinone derivative).

Until July 2010 the substance was not controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and was therefore not illegal for someone to possess.

[citation needed] A study by researchers at Liverpool John Moores University found that only one out of ten products labelled as "NRG-1" actually contained naphyrone when they were subjected to laboratory analysis.

[4] Some samples of β-naphyrone sold have also been found to contain the alternative isomer α-naphyrone,[16] presumably produced accidentally as an impurity in synthesis.

[17][failed verification] The in vitro data available in the scientific literature was all obtained using pure β-naphyrone, and the pharmacological properties of α-naphyrone are unknown, further complicating the pharmacological profile of this little-studied designer drug.