There is a widespread attitude that counts against delaying a legislative response to emergent drugs. Many punters, especially younger ones, think that chemicals are safe unless proven otherwise - that is not the case.
The health fears over legal highs are focused on what could sensibly be called a “known unknown”. Professor John Ramsey is a forensic toxicologist who runs the UK’s database of drugs. During my interview with him, he pointed at one packet of highs and said “For example, I have no way of knowing that this one won’t cause birth defects.” Home Office and EU drugs policy adviser, Dr Les King, was also on message: “as a chemist I know that all chemicals are dangerous until proven otherwise.”
There is a precedent for such concerns over the safety of these substances. A heroin substitute called MPPP, first synthesised in 1947, was still doing the rounds during the designer drug craze of the 80s.
It was found that this drug often contained an impurity called MPTP that caused a permanent Parkinsons disease-like syndrome after just one dose. A slow government response increases the amount of exposure to substances that have the potential to greatly damage public health.
This is an even greater concern given the enthusiasm that young people are showing for legal highs. The end of the Observer’s two page spread describes teenagers buying legal highs with their parents. A quick look through the profiles of anyone posting comments on drug forums tells you how young some users are.
Recently, a disturbing new craze has evolved that demonstrates how deeply ingrained drugs culture has become. School kids are now snorting sherbert and crushed up love hearts in emulation of cocaine-users. You can see some youtube videos of this craze here and here.
In the absence of a proper method of regulating legal highs, and given the level of ignorance about them, legislative delays can only add to the risks of a hazardous pastime.
Matt Bardo
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 3:02 pm. Add a comment
Legal highs are back in the press and this time they could cause a stir. Last week the Observer ran a double-page spread on them and it all seems to have been sparked by some noise from across the pond.
Salvia is a drug that comes from a the plant “Salvia Divinorum”, which is indigenous to Mexico. In days gone by, it was used in shamanic rituals. But today, it is popular among the youtube generation with those who are searching for altered mental states. When chewed or smoked salvia generates short-term but very intense hallucinogenic effects.
The drug has been known about for some time. You can watch BBC Inside Out’s 2007 take on it here. The Labour MP, John Mann has tried unsuccessfully to get the substance banned in the UK. Across the pond, the story has been quite different.
A campaign against salvia exploded in the US when a teenager called Brett Chidester killed himself in 2006. His mother blamed the drug for his death and has said that bringing salvia under regulation across the US will be her son’s legacy. The legislation that bans salvia has been dubbed “Brett’s Law”.
“My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has recently written to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs [ACMD] requesting that it provide advice to Government on the availability and harms of psychoactive legal alternatives to illegal drugs, so called “legal highs”, with a particular focus on protecting young people. I fully anticipate that this work will include Salvia Divinorum. The Government’s position on its control will be informed by Advisory Council’s advice.”
The ACMD are due to report on their initial findings next month. If the ACMD do attempt to estimate the size and value of the UK legal high industry, it is likely to gain some column width.
Matt Bardo
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 5:34 am. Add a comment
A drug that is associated with rape, coma and death is not usually legal. Yet the only restriction on the UK trade in GBL is an EU Voluntary Monitoring list through which the chemical industry reports suspicious orders/transactions to the competent national authorities.
“The federal decision to ban GHB and GBL was taken only this year. Before that, GHB - but not GBL - was banned in a number of American states. Where it was banned, there was evidence that GBL was widely misused in its place. That is why it is important to tackle the two side by side.”
Then, in 2006, an Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report on GBL recommended that it be brought under the Misuse of Drugs Act as a class C substance.A spokesman told me: “Having controlled GHB we felt it was necessary to control GBL.”
And in October 2008, Joan Ryan proposed a Bill to bring GBL under the Misuse of Drugs Act after she spoke to a constituent who had nearly died when her drink was spiked.
“I do not seek to deny that GBL has legitimate uses, and I accept that it is widely used as an industrial solvent. What I find difficult to believe, however, is that an industrial solvent being sold in bottles of 250 ml to private citizens in central London, with same-day delivery, is actually being used for legitimate industrial purposes. What needs to happen, and what my Bill provides for, is an end to the open market for GBL.”
Her bill went through a first reading last November but has since been delayed again. Today, GBL is a banned substance in America, Canada and Sweden but (still) remains legal in this country.
Matt Bardo
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 5:28 am. Add a comment
When our investigation into legal club drugs began, we read up on a drug called GHB. It’s a controlled substance in the UK, registered under the Misuse of Drugs Act as a class C drug - you might have heard it referred to as “liquid ecstasy”, “ liquid G” or “firewater”.
If you are caught in possession of GHB, you can be arrested. But a perfectly legal substance that will have the same effect is also available. It’s called GBL, it can be traded legally and last Wednesday, it killed a 21 year old student in Brighton.
GBL is an industrial solvent. It has a range of uses, appearing for example in nail varnish remover pads. But when ingested, it turns into GHB in the body. And that means it’s open to abuse as a legal equivalent of GHB.
Professor John Ramsey, who runs a national drug identification database called TICTAC Communications, is an expert in emergent substances. He said that for all intents and purposes, GBL and GHB are the same thing. In 2007 TICTAC figures revealed that more than half the doses of GHB being sold in nightclubs were in fact GBL.
At low doses, GHB/GBL cause euphoria, sociability and increased libido in users. At medium doses, they produce a strong hypnotic effect. At higher doses, they can cause coma and death. It is often smuggled around in drinks bottles. At TICTAC we saw several examples of what were ostensibly sports drinks, that actually contained GHB/GBL. One dose can be obtained for as little as 10 pence.
The Emergency Department at St Thomas’ Hospital, London treats many of those who have been poisoned by party drugs during a night out at Vauxhall’s clubs. According to one study listed by the ACMD report on GBL, of the 1119 patient presentations with poisoning, 158 (14%) were for GHB/GBL intoxication. That represents 38% of all drugs of abuse.
To obtain the desired effect, the dosage of GBL needs to be precisely administered – too much can kill, especially when it interacts with alcohol. To complicate this calculation even further, the concentration of GHB or GBL varies depending on what has been done to the drugs.
Because GHB/GBL is colourless, odourless and only has a mild salty taste, it is easily used to spike drinks. It has been widely linked to date rape.
This brilliant video from knowghb.org.uk shows the effects of GHB:
Guernsey one of the UK’s closest neighbours known for its tax haven status has taken a step towards controlling legal highs.
An announcement in April 2009 made by the islands’ Home Department and Health and Social Services Department said that a ban on the import and export of ‘legal highs’ for commercial use had been imposed.
The aim of the measure is not to criminalise the possession of the drugs.
Dr Stephen Bridgman, Director of Public Health said: “I have significant concerns about the effect these substances have on health.
“The clear recommendation from the Health and Social Services Department is that people should not use these products, due to the uncertain nature of the chemicals in them and the reported adverse effects on health.”
The decision to stop the trade in legal substances that have similar effects to illegal drugs is a change in approach from the traditional approach of banning drugs.
The move was made after a report from a drug and alcohol strategy group that collected the opinions of health care professionals on the island into the effects legal highs were having on individuals and the community.
Guernsey is now waiting for the introduction of a new medicines law which will ban the sale of any herbal remedies which does not have marketing authorisation.
Once the legislation has been passed by the UK government, the state of Guernsey will review the import and export ban.
Balihar Khalsa
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 1:17 am. Add a comment
Selling legal highs must currently be one of the most attractive business opportunities on the planet.It is such a simple idea. You start with the most addictive and profitable product there is – illegal drugs – and then you slightly tweak them so that your invention replicates their captivating effects and falls within the law.
To achieve this you need two things in your favour. You need slack drug laws to leave the door ajar and you need money to pay the clandestine chemists to do the tweaking and barge right through it.
In terms of the former, the legal high impresarios are onto a winner. Firstly, the complex nature of drugs means that it is entirely impossible for a government to make every mind-altering chemical compound illegal – there are just too many possible adaptations.
Governments also face an incredibly difficult catch-22 situation. If they act quickly to ban an up-and-coming drug, they are unlikely to have had the time to frame the legislation in a way that would cover the drug’s similarly effective relatives, yet if they act slowly in an attempt to implement a more thorough and wide-reaching law they will be criticised for dithering.
Even if some more stringent governments do get their act together, demand for mind-twisting chemicals is truly global and developing countries in particular are going to feel they have far more pressing concerns than addressing the complicated legal high minefield.
The money that is there to be made through legal highs is mind-blowing. The extraordinary margins means that there is now a virtuous or viscious cycle (depending on what side of the legal high divide you stand) developing. Drugs expert John Ramsey estimated that each legal high packet costs 20p to manufacture and when they can be sold for £10 it is no wonder that the tweaks the clandestine chemists are making are becoming increasingly sophisticated and effective.
The recent emergence of methylone and mephedrone is a great example of this. They are among the first drugs to sidestep the prohibitions on MDMA-style substances and all reports suggest their effects are closer than ever to that of ecstasy.
Remarkably little is known about who is behind this stunning piece of business opportunism. Ramsey speculated that the highs and packaging were made in China, whilst there have also been suggestions that New Zealand has been an origin of supply. It seems likely that companies such as Stargate International, who originate from down under, are behind at least some of the new releases onto the market.
All in all, while the risks and ethics of the products remain very much in the shadows, if you can find out who runs the show in the legal high business then you would be either moral or mad not to gather up everything you own and invest.
In 1977 MDMA was automatically classified as a Class A drug in the UK because of the comprehensive wording of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. The legislation held out virtually unammended until the millennium.
The Government has only failed to make the deadline set by the EU for outlawing BZP because they seek to frame new legislation that is similarly all-encompassing and will hold strong for another 30 years.
John Ramsey, a drugs expert from TICTAC Communications, made the telling point that BZP represents a new type of chemical on the recreational drug scene. The concern for the Government is that if they rush though a specific ban on BZP, then clandestine chemists will just slightly alter the BZP chemical structure and within months there will be another “legal” drug on the market providing BZP-like effects. This is what is happening with the new drugs on the block, methylone and mephedrone, which are both “one tweak away” from MDMA.
John Ramsey
The Government believe that it is well worth leaving BZP as a legal high for another few months, if it means that they can tie up BZP’s whole chemical family in legal knots for the next few decades and avoid the headaches they are currently experiencing with the new MDMA spin-offs.
George Arbuthnott
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 10:49 pm. 1 comment
