Legal Highs

[ukanonymous]

What exactly are the dangers of legal highs? Mixing them with other substances? I was under the impression they would be purer. Obviously they are not regulated so not tested. But what are the deaths mainly caused by. Some of them look like they are trying to create a brand.

[EDDIE51]

There is no control at all over manufacture of 'Legal Highs' they can contain anything, what makes you think they should be purer?

[ukanonymous]

because they are manufactured and professionally packaged. A dealer buys an ounce of the purest he can get and cuts it down with anything to make money. The cutting down process can be done many times with many different things.

[ummmm]

They aren't tested, they could contain anything.

[Retrochic]

They are manufactured and processed in third world countries with no checks on what goes into them. As they are not supposed to be for human consumption (and it says this on the packet) they do not need to adhere to any food safety laws. Its like saying fake vodka must be pure because it comes in 'professional' packaging.

[redvanman]

Are for idiots

[Old_Geezer]

One can not reasonable ask what the dangers of "legal highs" are as each substance is different. Of course they try to create a brand, they are trying to make money whilst others take the risks. Take an untested drug, especially over a long period, and almost anything could be the result.

[Retrochic]

Many people get addicted to perfectly legal prescription drugs and eventually die, Micheal Jackson springs to mind as does Elvis Presley.

[EDDIE51]

As there is no control or specifications you could buy a particular 'brand' of legal high one week and again the next week and they could be totally diffrent things.If you are sufficiently stupid to consume the contents of a package labeled 'Plant food not for human consumption' you can't complain if it causes problems.
Personally I am in favour of decriminalising all drugs but NOT leagalising them, there is a huge diffrence between the 2.

[EDDIE51]

^ Retro M J died from being given a drug that while legal was only supposed to be administerd to a patient as an anesthetic while on the operating table!
That is why the doctor who precribed it was convicted of manslaughter.

[Peter Pedant]

// WEll I don't think they are going to be cut with knowingly harmful substances. This is because they synthesis chemicals that are similar to real drugs yet only vary by a few chemical structures.//

yup ... or ... nope - you can believe that if you wish

Meths ( drano, methyl alcohol ) differs only from ethanol - alcohol, - by a methylene group ( - CH2- ) and has very different actions

one makes you blind, and the other makes you high....


and here is an old one from the seventies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP

which caused an outbreak of parkinson's in twnety year olds


which made my blood run cold, when you wrote - as they were saying then:
Yeah well its natural so it has to pure - yeah ! good it is for you because it has nt been froo de pharma industry, yeah ! Lots of bad people there !


//I was under the impression they would be purer. //
hahaha o good one: lots of chinese remedies are laced with prednisolone so they work (!!) and have an effect they otherwise wouldnt have


and you have put drug taking under .... health and fitness... oh well ... good luck

[Peter Pedant]

// Many people get addicted to perfectly legal prescription drugs and eventually die, Micheal Jackson springs to mind //

Michael Jackson should NOT spring to mind for a variety of reasons.
He was poisoned by propofol which was NOT an over the counter med.
His doctor who had been hired to give it was not trained to and shouldnt have got in the first place. The doctor was hired at $106 000 a month to do this ....

not a good example of anything

[ukanonymous]

Well I never said its natural but I still insist it will be purer to the stuff on the streets. regardless what it does to you good or bad. It is more likely to be what it says it is. I dont think you quite got a grasp of the whole thing there?

//and you have put drug taking under .... health and fitness... oh well ... good luck//

What makes you think that it should not be posted here when I was questioning the dangers on health? Would it have been better to put it in the Animals and nature section as it is sold as plant food? I will await your answer as this is really distressing me.

[ummmm]

You keep thinking that...

[fiction-factory]

I'm not at all sure where this thread is going, ukanonymous. Yes they may be 'purer' in your sense of the word but in answer to your opening sentence in your question "what exactly are the dangers..." I think we are in agreement that they are potentially very dangerous, both in pure form or when mixed with other things by dealers.

[ukanonymous]

//They aren't tested, they could contain anything.//

Sorry but they have been tested if you had a few seconds to spare to do some research.

[ummmm]

Who tests them? Because most legal highs don't stay legal for long.

[ukanonymous]

fiction well yes true.

[scorpiojo]

From NHS Choices:

The risks of legal highs
Legal highs can carry serious health risks. The chemicals they contain have in most cases never been used in drugs for human consumption before. This means they haven't been tested to show that they are safe. Users can never be certain what they are taking and what the effects might be.

Other risks:
You increase the risk to yourself if you combine alcohol with any legal or illegal substance that causes a high.
Effects of legal highs can include reduced inhibitions, drowsiness, excited or paranoid states, coma, seizures and, in a few cases, death.
Because the chemical ingredients in a branded product can be changed without you knowing, the risks are unpredictable.
Even drugs that look similar or have similar names may be varying strengths and have different effects.

[jackthehat]

There are some very clever chemists who re adept at mixing a variety of chemicals to produce a 'high'. This is produced in vast quantities. However, the further you can stretch this original concoction the more money you will make. SO the chemist will produce 1kilo of it to sell on to customer A; customer A will cut it with *something* to double it's volume and maximise his/her profit when selling it onto customer B.
Now, whether this ends up in little baggies with photocopied labels in 'Natural High' shops......or in twists under the jacket of a baseball-cap wearing youth at a street corner.....the process remains the same.

[EDDIE51]

I could get hold of a batch of dried chicken manure,grind it up, put it in nice printed packets and sell it with a name like 'Ultra Buzz' and say it was a legal high. As long as the words 'Not for human consumption' were printed on it there would be nothing anyone could do about it. That is how much control there is on'Legal Highs'. They can not be 'tested' as that would mean giving them to test subjects as 'proper' drugs are.