Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jan 2006
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: David McCandless

EXOTIC, LEGAL HIGHS BECOME BIG BUSINESS AS 'HEADSHOPS' BOOM

Big Issue: Alcohol And Drugs

Drug Emporiums Flourish, Selling Pills, Plants And Cannabis Paraphernalia

Pocket bongs, digital scales, herb grinders and exotic shamanic 
plants. The shelves of King Bong in Bournemouth are packed with all 
the discerning drug user could possibly want. There are brightly 
packaged pills such as "Yellow Veg-E's", "vegetarian blissed-out 
dance capsules", and the citrus-flavoured Lime-Fantazias which 
promise "euphoric sensations" all night. And all of it entirely legal.

King Bong is one of some 200 "headshops" in the high street. Most 
major towns and cities now have a resident drug emporium, selling 
raver toys, cannabis accessories, and a selection of legal, 
mind-altering drugs. Along with several large-scale websites, they 
form a lucrative "legal highs" industry which markets exotic 
mind-changing plants and chemicals to a growing audience of drug 
users looking for alternatives to illegal substances.

Demand for such legal highs has never been higher. "Business is on 
the up," says King Bong's owner, Tony Rotherham, who has run 
headshops for 12 years. "We're getting all sorts in here. Hippies, 
clubbers, students, housewives, even slimmers looking for appetite 
suppressants."

It was the boom in sales of magic mushrooms that kickstarted the 
industry. A legal loophole led to a proliferation of vendors. The 
mushrooms' reliable and mostly benevolent psychedelic effects changed 
public perception of legal highs. "Mushrooms opened people's mind to 
the possibility you could go into a shop and get a legal high that 
had an effect," he says.

When the loophole closed in July, vendors filled the void. "We've got 
a lot of new good products coming in," Mr Rotherham says. Some 20 
new, effective drugs have emerged in the last year.

A hotchpotch of shamanic plants, synthetic stimulants, and 
psychedelic cacti, most imported from the Netherlands, New Zealand 
and India, are repackaged and sold across the UK. An intoxicant plant 
from Thailand called Kratom is a big seller and dubbed the "herbal 
speedball" due its apparent euphoric effects. Also selling well is a 
new breed of ecstasy-like drugs, marketed as "p.e.p pills". They 
contain piperazines, stimulant chemicals from the same chemical 
family as Viagra.

Magic mushroom sellers have switched to selling another mushroom, not 
yet outlawed: the red-and-white spotted Fly Agaric toadstool, which 
contains the psychoactive chemicals muscimol and ibotenic acid which 
can trigger delirious, dream-like states.

Thanks to the effectiveness of these legal highs and the large 
customer base created by the mushroom boom, the trade is booming in 
shops and on the web, with shoppers exploiting secure credit card 
orders and 24-hour websites.

"Loads of people are getting into it," says Mark Evans, owner of 
EveryOneDoesIt.com, the UK's biggest online headshop. "At the click 
of a button you can have whatever you want next day, at your home or 
in your office."

His site boasts more than 5,000 products and many types of drugs: 
stimulant, visionary, relaxant, aphrodisiac. Customers can give star 
ratings and post Amazon-style reviews. The web ensures word of mouth 
spreads quickly. Highs that don't work or have negative side-effects 
quickly disappear from sale.

It is proving a lucrative international business. "We're selling to 
thousands of customers a week all over Europe and north America," Mr 
Evans says. "There's a lot of money in the industry right now." His 
company claims a UKP2m a year turnover, with the estimated worth of 
the UK industry put at UKP10m.

While the majority of the new drugs remain unscheduled under the 
Misuse of Drugs Act, retailers are careful not to encourage any 
illegal activity or directly promote products as drugs. Cannabis 
seeds are often sold as "souvenirs". Bottles of inhalant amyl nitrite 
or "poppers" are advertised as "room odourisers". Bongs (a water pipe 
used for smoking cannabis) are labelled for "legal smoking mixes 
only". However, some of the plant-based highs have a quasi-legal 
status because they contain naturally occurring illegal drugs. The 
San Pedro cactus contains the outlawed psychedelic substance 
mescaline. Magic mushrooms, too, contain a class A drug, psilocybin, 
and were banned.

Says Katy Swaine, head of legal services at drugs advice charity 
Release: "The circumstances in which it is illegal to possess or 
supply the plant are ambiguous." But the authorities seem 
unconcerned. "We've only had the police in here once in 12 years," 
says Mr Rotherham. "The local beat officer came in after someone from 
a local mental health institute bought some herbal highs. He asked us 
not to sell to anyone from there. So we didn't."

Retailers say legal highs are safer than illicit drugs, which are 
often either adulterated or dangerously powerful. In contrast, many 
legal highs have a history of human use dating back thousands of 
years. Plant preparations such as the psychedelic Amazonian brew, 
ayahuasca, or Yopo Seeds, which contain the hallucinogen DMT 
(dimethyltryptamine), are used as sacraments in some shamanic 
ceremonies, with vomiting and loss of bowel control common.

Some have moved to ban some legal highs as their use has increased, 
creating a patchwork of inconsistent legislation. The potent 
psychedelic herb, Salvia Divinorum is banned in Australia and Italy 
but legal elsewhere.

"Governments tend to respond to very visible problems or public 
health scares," says Ms Swaine. "If there was an explosion in the use 
or supply of a particular substance, as with magic mushroom, they 
might take steps."

Mark Evans, of EveryOneDoesIt.com, says: "The government know we're 
here. We pay 40% tax plus 1% for national insurance ... I'm sure they 
do very well out of the headshop industry."

New Stimulants, Old Plants

Salvia divinorum Rare form of sage contains Salvinorin A, powerful 
psychoactive chemical. Effects When smoked, its effects are 
instantaneous, powerful and strange. Duration 5-10 minutes, with an 
hour-long tail-off. Status Banned in Australia and Italy.

Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) Native south-east Asian plant. When 
eaten, the powdered leaves cause an effect not dissimilar to a 
combination of heroin and cocaine. Effects Waves of physical 
pleasure, euphoria. Duration 5-8 hours. Status Illegal in Thailand 
and Australia

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) Red and white spotted mushroom. When 
cooked the toxins break down, so it can be drunk in a tea. Effects 
Often unreliable, a dreamy intoxicated state, excessive salivation. 
Duration 5 hours Status Legal everywhere.

San Pedro (Trichocereus pachanoi) Common cactus found in most garden 
centres, has large amounts of mescaline, class-A psychedelic. Effects 
Mild stimulant or full-blown psychedelia for 12 hours. Large amounts 
of the bitter cactus must be consumed. Most throw up. Duration 12-18 
hours. Status Legal.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman