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'Legal highs' crackdown is doomed to failure, say experts

Clubbers stay one step ahead as the Government lags behind on drug reform

By Stina Backer

Mephedrone has become the partygoers' legal high of choice

ALAMY

Mephedrone has become the partygoers' legal high of choice

Dealers of recreational drugs will barely be affected by the Home Office's crackdown on "legal highs" because manufacturers have already developed alternative substances that will escape prohibition.

The British Government has been so far behind other European countries in tackling drugs like GBL and BZP that revellers have already moved on to the next high, according to toxicology experts.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, announced on Thursday that shewas planning to classify BZP – a drug similar to ecstasy which is also known as "Benny" and was originally a worming treatment for cattle – as a class-C substance, outlawing its trade and possession in the UK.

But specialists say that manufacturers in China and on theContinent have already diverted their resources to producing large batches of mephedrone, a drug with effects similar to cocaine which will remain entirely legal.

Mephedrone, nicknamed "meph" and sometimes marketed as plant food, is sold for as little as £15 a gram online and in high street "head shops" (which sell bongs and rolling paraphernalia). It is a member of the methcathinone family of substances which is distantly related to the khat plant. Metabolism of cathinone produces chemicals structurally similar to amphetamine and adrenaline. "Legal highs" is the catch-all tag for an array of drugs that take users out of their bodies while staying within the law.

A coroner called for BZP to be banned after the death of 22-year-old mortgage broker Daniel Backhouse, who had mixed the substance with ecstasy powder, while last month in Brighton, Heather Stewart, 21, died after taking the party drug GBL, an industrial solvent.

"The UK is slow and behind the times in banning BZP," said Dr John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St George's University of London, who is also the director of Tic Tac Communications, a drug analysis body that studies recreational drugs. "We can't rely on the Home Office to play catch up when it comes to these drugs. We need a sensible debate in the media about their potential risks."

But it is mephedrone that is increasingly partygoers' legal high of choice. Users report intense euphoria, talkativeness and increased levels of energy. It is already illegal in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Israel, but at present there are no plans to ban it in Britain.

The Swedish ban came after mephedrone was linked to the death of an 18-year-old woman in Stockholm last December.

Because the substances are legal, little is known about their side-effects or circulation. "Nobody is investigating them," said Dr Ramsey. "The problem is to try to collect the information. It's all under the radar, and people [who arrive] in A&E aren't very honest about what they have taken."

He continued: "No one has the remotest idea of what the long-term effects of taking these substances are – they could interact with legitimate medication such as contraceptive pills and HIV medication, or they could cause birth defects. But because they are not [illegal] drugs they're not tested by the pharmaceutical industry so we simply don't know how bad they are for you yet."

Prior to the development of legal synthetic drugs, the market was full of so-called "herbal highs" that were relatively benign products containing caffeine or ephedrine from the herbs guarana and ephedra whose effects were not much more powerful than a strong cup of coffee.

The popularity of legal highs grew sharply when BZP substances were introduced to the market in the late 1990s and it has taken governments across Europe a decade to classify it as illegal. In March 2008, the European Union decided that all member states should control the use of BZP by March 2009, but in the UK it remains legal, pending the change in the law. On YouTube, videos promoting meph are quickly "flagged" as offensive by other meph users, to try to keep the substance's profile low (and hence postpone any legislative action against it).

Dr Ramsey said: "I don't think your average 15-year-old would dream that he could buy a something legal from a 'head shop' on the high street that might kill him."

The user: 'It's easy to get – all you need is a debit card and internet access'

Sebastian Scott, 26, lives in Clapham, south London. He is originally from Australia and works as a project manager in local government.

"I have tried ecstasy, acid, ketamine, weed, mushrooms, MDMA, and coke. Up to last year I used MDMA and coke on a regular basis when I went out clubbing. But then I heard about meph[edrone] through a friend who raved about it. All I had to do was Google it and lots of shops came up as selling it. I bought two grams for €40 (£35) and the postman delivered it to my front door two days later.

"By the end of the weekend it was all gone. It's very similar to the effect you get with coke but much cheaper, so now I only do meph. It's easier to get hold of because all you need is a debit card and internet access. It makes you talkative, happy, a bit spaced, energised and time seems to go faster. Because the high is short you end up using quite a lot. The comedown is worse than for any of the illegal stuff I have tried; it makes you really emotional and anti-social. But I feel safer using it and I know it's legal.

"I still hide the bag of meph in my shoe when I go out. To a bouncer it doesn't matter, they will assume it's coke. It would be frustrating to get thrown out when you are not on the wrong side of the law."

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Comments

Legal highs
[info]victhebrit wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 12:02 am (UTC)
Yet another way of wasting tax money. All this reclassification will do is imprison a few more young people and hence cost the taxpayer a few more tens of thousands of pounds to keep them there. It won't curb usage and it won't change attitudes.
All the smears and lies about the effects of cannabis has proved to young drug-takers that you can't believe anything the government says.
Losing Battle
[info]gacman wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 07:51 am (UTC)
It's about time that governments learned that no matter how many "drugs" they make illegal a significant proportion of the population will continue to look for ways to get off their heads. The costs of cracking (no pun intended) down on these substances far outweigh the costs of dealing with any medical conditions allegedly caused by them. Legalise the lot and educate people as to the risks. This will allow people to make informed decisions, ensure more consistent quality and eliminate the crime element from the drug scene. I am fed up being nannied by politicians who have no clue what they are talking about and only respond to "Sun" style "drug fury" headlines. Hell, they can even tax it if it is legal. That should be enough to make them salivate at the thought.
Re: Losing Battle
[info]dimlocator44 wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 08:12 am (UTC)
I entirely agree, but on drugs our political class have only one setting, "Daily Mail moral panic".
BZP
[info]westhamsterdam wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 08:20 am (UTC)
I tried it once & never again. The hang over from this drug is unbelievable. An aching head along with the most tremendous flat stomach. I was laid up in bed for nearly a day & I didn't even consume any alcohol. The affects were not even that brillant. This puts you off legal highs forever.
Re: BZP
[info]dydor wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 09:01 am (UTC)
Know what you mean. I feel the same about alcohol. Lucky there's something for everyone, eh?
Stop banning everything
[info]alan_partridge1 wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 09:50 am (UTC)
Why is the EU determined to ban anything which alters a person's state of consciousness? Are they worried that we might help us develop spiritually? Heaven forbid.

The very few cases of death from BZP have been from people mixing it with Ectasy. Mixing drugs is always a danger. The number of deaths are not statistically significant.

It is better that people take drugs that are clinically controlled with warnings rather than some tablet bought from a criminal that contains bleach or any number of harmful substances.
Re: Stop banning everything
[info]westhamsterdam wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 10:17 am (UTC)
Most Canabis resin in the UK is thought to be of a very poor standard. It's often accompanied with shoe polish to give it a brown texture & soaked in diesel to give it more weight. Proper canabis resin should look more black than brown in appearance (you can tell the difference with Dutch coffee shops). You get what you deserve if you use this stuff which is what the authorative stance appears to be. Trouble is all these sick people will then turn to the NHS trusts when sick placing an absolutely shocking financial burden on them when they're all ready at financial stretching point.

Say if you deccrimalized canabis you could sell cakes & tea a move that would enable users to digest rather than smoke which could well reduce things like lung cancer & other illnesses associated with smoking. The trouble is we live in a drug culture you have alcoholic beverage makers enticing young kids to drink. Alcohol is very much a toxic neurological drug. I wonder if the tabacco firms acted in the same maner as these alcoholic beverage manufacters, making ciggerettes different colours to attract kids, they'd be outrage, why the difference with alcohol?
Re: Stop banning everything
[info]britfree wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 11:03 am (UTC)
grow your own ,its a doddle. never smoke " council hash" ! now that IS a health threat
Re: Stop banning everything
[info]voodoojedizin wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 06:26 pm (UTC)
I don't know what you been smoking but cannabis resin actually can come in several different colors without being tampered with.

In fact the lighter clear resins are actually more, pure more, refined in the United States they call it Honey oil.

Black resin is actually the cheaper less a slot after. And in the United States they call Mexican hash. It's not very good stuff.

Using a low heat distiller you can easily purify the cheap stuff and turn it into the more expensive and hard to find amber resins.
stupid independent
[info]britfree wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 10:06 am (UTC)
you should run a campaign to have them legalised , then throw a middle class strop and change your minds . i remember you buying hook line and sinker the dodgy dis information that was the OTAGO report , reporting hysterical anecdote as if it was scientific fact . middle class english writers , who cant understand why your children hate your values , blaming the weed for the fact your children are as prone to mental illness as everybody else . run another wine offer , everybody knows the drink doesnt cause any health problems . grrrrrrr.....bourgeois trash ? you'll find it first in the independent
Nasty dangerous drugs
[info]rogersbrother wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 10:54 am (UTC)
Personally I'll stick with the herb that cheers.
Cannabis is illegal, but it's my drug of choice.
Why am I not (yet) free to choose?
Mephedrone
[info]allormuffin wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 12:13 pm (UTC)
I expect it to be banned in a few months. It's an excellent substance though and it will be a shame when it does.
death by alcohol
[info]adamcl wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 04:11 pm (UTC)
some people died after consuming this substance shouldn't we ban it too?
Get highs missed the point
[info]voodoojedizin wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 06:32 pm (UTC)
Get highs missed the point

Everything with the government is about taxes, the reason marijuana it is illegal is because it cannot be controlled and properly taxed.

Anyone can grow it, and just about anywhere, the same cannot be said for tobacco. It is controlled and it is taxed. The same goes with alcohol, not everyone can make alcohol that you would want to drink, it is a controlled substance that the government makes money off of by taxing it.

It doesn't matter that alcohol kills thousands upon thousands of people every year either through auto accidents or health related alcohol problems. They don't really care what they care about is the money that comes from the taxes. And of course the same goes for tobacco it doesn't matter that smoking tobacco causes cancer kills tens of thousands of people the year they don't care. All the government cares about is control and taxes.

Almost every illegal drug, is only illegal because they cannot control it and cannot tax it.
Re: Get highs missed the point
[info]lknowles wrote:
Friday, 21 August 2009 at 10:15 am (UTC)
I really do agree with what what you're saying, and I do think alcohol is one of the biggest burdens of our society.

But actually it's not quite fair to say the only reason alcohol is illegal is for commercial reasons. Many countries, including the UK experimented with legislation to control alcoholism. In the early 19th century, the British government were very concerned about the amount of alcohol being consumed, especially amongst the working classes.

They dabbled with legislation, such as the Beer Bill, to try and reduce the amounts of spirits being consumed. But this didn't really work because the new savvy middle classes were capitalizing on the commercial profits of alcohol. When prohibition was even mentioned to be introduced, the population would just not have it and in this aspect the government was powerless.

I understand what you're saying, and I personally hate alcohol, but my point is, yes the government are making huge tax profits from alcohol, but that doesn't mean that people don't love going out boozing, getting legless and razzed on friday and saturday nights.

Maybe cannabis would cause less deaths per year, and it's easy to say for us, as I suspect most people in this forum talking about drugs aren't the biggest boozers. But alcoholism is a deep rooted problem within british society and has been for many hundreds of years, and the main problem of it is that people love it so much. When the working man in the 19th century had no where to go but his dirt ridden house, cramped with his 12 children or the public house, which do you think he turned to? This was something the working man had that the government could not take from him.
Stick to E
[info]kuma2000 wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 07:11 pm (UTC)
MDMA is pretty safe, don't take dodgy stuff just because you want to stay on the right side of the law.

Any sensible government would have de-criminalised safe recreational chemicals like MDMA, LSD and cannabis years ago.
Legal highs
[info]eyeswithoutafac wrote:
Monday, 25 May 2009 at 08:05 pm (UTC)
I would rather be in a room full of people taking mephedrone than a room full of people drinking themselves into oblivion, no worries of fighting just a good atmosphere and a good evening.
When will the govournment take a stand on the alcohol abuse in this country, thats a big no,no eh, alcohol brings in far too much revenue so that one gets swept under the carpet.
I`m in my 40`s and have tried most drugs that have come and gone in the past 25 yrs and to be honest, I`ve had a ball, none of my mates dropped dead from a clean E but i have had a friend die from being hit by a drunk driver and another that has wrecked his internal organs from drinking.
As i`m getting older i can`t rave all night like i used to so i treat myself and my wife to some mephedrone once every couple of weeks and we have a great night in,we don`t force our indulgence on anyone else and do no harm to anyone else, we have been doing this since the "research chemical" came on the market over two yrs ago. I hold down a highly technical job and this chemical doesn`t interfere with my life at all.
I thought i would just put in a point of view from the other side to even things up a bit.
Don`t knock it until you have tried it.
Re: Legal highs
[info]kuma2000 wrote:
Tuesday, 26 May 2009 at 12:33 am (UTC)
I couldn't have put it more eloquently myself!
Dorset NHS Dickensian practices
[info]prague_3 wrote:
Thursday, 18 June 2009 at 03:40 am (UTC)
The UK is behind the rest of the E.U. in health care regarding the treatment of opiate addiction. Dorset NHS trust has waiting list of up to 16 weeks to enable a client to be prescribed opiate blocking agents (subatex). In that time; 16 weeks the clients health will deteriorate and crime to support heroin habit rise. In Dorset 'STABLE IN COMMUNITY MEANS' obtains drugs in community by visting dealers, sometimes uses drugs that does not want to' .The addict ha no choice; Dorset NHS is producing a backlog of addiction by 'Dickensian' prescribing regimes linked to a medical model that is archaic and no doubt has a link to deaths in pschiatric care which are running at about 3 a day.
Legal Highs
[info]bcraven wrote:
Tuesday, 7 July 2009 at 03:39 pm (UTC)
More and more places are now selling Legal Highs, only this week www.simplypleasure.com started selling legal highs

Does it really look like they are going to be band?
Mephedrone
[info]lamby_mod wrote:
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 at 02:04 am (UTC)
I live in an Area where Cocaine was Very popular, but just recently the use of mephedrone has replaced the usage of cocaine at a staggering rate, y ban a drug tht is so widely enjoyed and seems alot safer, probably because it's cleaner...for example...these days street cocaine deals are probably 30 - 40% pure cocaine, the rest is dangerous fillers, whereas u can buy mephedrone pure and legal, y not tax it? and makemoney on it rather than waste our money on it?
Re: Mephedrone
[info]lknowles wrote:
Friday, 21 August 2009 at 10:24 am (UTC)
Absolutely true, cocaine is cut with some really terrible things, such as glass to make it weight heavier. I'd much rather deal with a company distributing mephedrone, than have to approach aggy coke dealers, which I think are the worst kind of dealers of all from my experience.
(no subject) - [info]xiashixiong789 - Friday, 16 October 2009 at 04:54 pm (UTC) Expand
(no subject) - [info]xiashixiong789 - Friday, 16 October 2009 at 05:49 pm (UTC) Expand
Legal highs
[info]mikelecritique wrote:
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 at 03:24 pm (UTC)
The GP's are probable right in not prescribing prescription stimulants to those not suffering from narcolepsy but I'm pushing 70 and still have a part time lecturing job. However come around 3 pm a leaden blanket surrounds my brain and a deep mental and physical weariness continues till bed. My GP is sympathetic but can't really help. Street drugs are out for many reasons, not least of which is uncertainty of product and my unwillingness to support criminal activity. While successive governments refuse to consider the least worst option by legalising and controlling recreational drugs those of use respecting the laws must seek alternatives. In my case some deep research via the internet have produced various legal alternatives. For me Mephadrone, a powder manufactured in China as plant food and soled quite legally in the UK, seems to work for me in a sensible way: an hour or so before a 2 - 3 hour lecture. No doubt sooner of later this will be classified as a Class A or B substance and banned thereby creating yet another level of illegal trading. And then, of course, new substances will be found - and so in infinitum.

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