I welcome the banning by the government of certain 'legal highs' which are being sold in head shops under the Misuse of Drugs act . Although a close eye must be kept on any new emerging substances available in the future. We also need tighter consumer protection and planning laws in this area.
While we wait for this law to be enacted some facts about the Head Shop Phenomena are as follows:
More than 90 substances have been reported through the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
This Market is demonstrating an ability to adapt quickly to control measures and production processes. Therefore product ranges and marketing approaches are highly innovative.
Many suppliers and manufactures use descriptions such as bath salts, incense or plant foods, They claim these substances are “ not intended for human consumption” as a way of getting around the drug laws. Legal highs are sold under a variety of names often with no or obscure ingredients listed on the packet so it is impossible to know what is being taken and how the user is going to react
Other legal highs are known as synthetic drugs. These are drugs created to get around the drug laws usually by modifying the chemical structure of existing drugs or by creating a new drug that can produce similar effects to illicit drugs but which can be sold legally.
The Internet has emerged as a new marketplace for psychoactive substances
Two European surveys in 2008 and 2009 showed that in 2008 there were 68 on-line shops which rose to 115 in 2009. These are spread across 17 countries with the majority (52%) located in the UK, followed by Netherlands (6%) and Germany (4%) Ireland accounted for 1%
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