BBC programme on legal highs

Cheers for the link. A nice way to spend an hr on a Sunday.

I'm definitely middle aged. I watch programs about drugs rather than actually doing any :)

surprised at not getting any further responses on this, thought people would be interested - especially as it seems evident (and based on what the toxicologist said) that illegal drugs are safer than the legal varieties - mostly because society has decades of experience, of billions of doses taken by as many people. whereas the legal stuff hasn't had animal testing, let alone human testing. adding a message to the label saying "not for human consumption" allows them to sidestep all that.

i also found the examinations of bzp and mephradrone interesting - both of which i've tried. there have been deaths with mephradrone since. the guy who invented bzp, apparently to get people off crystal meth (hmmm) is a tosser if you ask me. hes responsible for the dearth of real ecstasy pills over the last four years in london. yeah, thanks for that.

its all about the mandy now get with the times

Yeah I watched that last week, I thought it an interesting programme although maybe a little lightweight with their following of the Guernsey couple. George Lamb came across well, the kinda guy you'd want to have a pint with, pretty obvious he was a caner in recent times. And yes, I've noticed London supplies have been a bit less than optimal...

tg

Did they cover 'Chemistry' by London Underground at all? It's the stuff that put me in the loony bin for a month.

I know they covered Spice, which I talked about on here about 3 years ago as a alt-weed and was poo-pood, but has now been discovered to contain a synethic cannabis strain.

Other legals I've tried – Herbal E. Rubbish, does nothing.

Druids Fantasy – The closest thing to LSD you can get. But this was 10 years ago, probably no longer legal/available.

iain

Really?? what happened?

I went in depth about it when it happened two halloweens ago. Took all 3 pills in a pack spaced out by 30 mins each, and ended up disconnected from my identity. Spent a week in my flat (which I have no recollection of) smashing it up until the police arrested me naked and covered in blood at 4am. I only 'came to' about a month later in the Andrew Duncan psych hospital 3 weeks later.

I had taken them before too and didn't have a reaction like that, but I took all 3 at once before and ended up puking them up about 2 hours in.

iain

i just did a quick hunt around for some info - as with many of these things, there isn't much real information available beyond the manufacturers blurb, but the consensus on forums is that they contain a piperazine (similar family to BZP, but there's lots of them). a lot of people on UKD have had bad experiences with these, myself included.  i had some bzp out clubbing in manc, it was one of the most frightening experiences i've had with recreationals and like you i'm a seasoned professional with these things.

i also had these pills last year which were pretty good, but clearly not ecstasy. quite euphoric, but really oddly trippy in quite a non-trippy way if you know what i mean. no comedown whatsoever. in the end worked out what they were and it turns out that they are an anti-depressant known as MCPPP. 

its just not safe to do these things imo. as someone commented mdma powder is a much safer bet - but don't rely on someone not fucking with that. the only reason it hasn't been done sooner is because the consistency of the stuff makes it hard to cut convincingly, but someone will work it out sooner or later. an end to prohibition (and proper regulation of all drugs) is the only thing that will make it safer.

there's also a bunch of people working on that holy grail of drug synthesis - a synthetic version of cocaine. to be honest, i'd be watching my back if i was them. i'm sure there's many people who'd like to stop that happening at any price, and i'm not just talking about the police.  once that happens, the cat is out of the bag and the drug war obviously lost (even though they've been fighting a losing battle for some time anyway).

Fuck!! I must have missed that. Sounds like hell mate, sorry you had to go through it.

makes about as much sense as the message which is on tins of dog food – "not tested on animals" – is it just me or does that seem like a bit of a lie?

its all about the food and drug regulations. if they don't say that, then they are obliged to do proper animal and human testing, which being back street chemists, they aren't about to do. so, are you prepared to take a research chemical where there is no information whatsoever?  in my mind better to go for illegal chems where you know whats what, sort of.

he looks proper odd too

lol, thats what hardcore crystal meth abuse does to you i suppose. wonder if the bzp helped him?

he's a kiwi, waddoyaexpect.

Odd, I thought you were a Kiwi nic...

Hi, watched it last night. Thought the gasping when the chemist mentioned that they could cause cancer was a bit bizzare, wondered how many of the film crew popped out for a cigarette after that shot. Also thought inviting the GP over was a bit OTT, on turning up poor guy looked a bit disappointed, dressed as if he was hoping to participate then head out after. As a Kiwi I can only apologise, if anything, it seems hair cuts have not changed since I left for the UK in the 90's.

the thing is though that at least people can make an informed decision about cigarettes knowing they cause cancer. i'm not prepared to test unknown drugs, simple as that. its also knowing about people like iain who experienced a psychotic episode after experimenting - that to me is very frightening. so i don't think the programme was over-egged at all, but maybe a little bit lightweight (thats what you get when you hire george lamb to ponce about in his oswald boateng suits)