Pubdate: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 Source: Newcastle Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2011 Newcastle Newspapers Pty Limited Contact: 61 2 4979 5888 Website: http://www.nnp.com.au/html/herald_index.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/302 Author:Ian Kirkwood BAN ON SYNTHETIC CANNABIS KRONIC FAILS GOVERNMENT efforts to ban synthetic cannabis drugs such as Kronic have failed. The drugs were openly on sale in Newcastle sex shops yesterday almost six months after the O'Farrell and Gillard governments moved against them. Both governments relied on adding a series of "cannabinoid" chemicals to outlawed drug registers to stop the sales in July. But the state government has acknowledged that manufacturers are tweaking their products to get around the ingredient-specific bans. On top of this, the federal laws apply only to possession, use and storage of the banned ingredients. "It is, however, not illegal to import these substances, and as such they are not controlled at the border," a Customs spokesman said yesterday. Australian Drug Foundation spokesman Geoff Munro warned yesterday against smoking the drugs, which had potentially dangerous side-effects. That warning was endorsed by Broadmeadow man Terry Kostanowicz, who says he is still dealing with a pyschotic reaction triggered by smoking the Northern Lights brand of the drug in September. "I'm warning you, this stuff is dangerous, the headache is unbelievable, for days I didn't know where I was," Mr Kostanowicz said. A spokeswoman for Mental Health Minister Kevin Humphries said the state government outlawed seven synthetic cannabinoid substances in July. With new strains of synthetic cannabis hitting the market, the government was looking at making the entire "broad class" of drugs illegal in NSW. The spokeswoman said the government was asking Canberra to consider similar "broad class" legislation. The Customs spokesman said regulation of Kronic and similar substances varied from state to state. "Where appropriate, Customs and Border Protection will refer detections of these products to the state authorities for investigation and action," the spokesman said. Controversy over the so-called "natural high" products arose in May when the Newcastle Herald reported concerns such drugs were popular in the mining industry because the active ingredients were not being detected by workplace drug tests. Lights go out after Northern trip BY his own admission, Terry Kostanowicz is no stranger to drugs. Decades of abuse - interspersed with what he says are years of sobriety - have left their mark. But of all the drugs he has used, Terry says the synthetic cannabinoid Northern Lights is the worst, and he wants to tell the world about it. "It took everything, instantly," Terry said yesterday from his Broadmeadow housing department flat. He said he only smoked a small amount of the drug over a couple of days in September. The result was a terrifying and deranging pyschosis that is still with him to some degree. He said it took him a fortnight to get to the drug and alcohol unit at the Calvary Mater - where he was well-known - but even then he struggled to make himself understood during the heights of his Northern Lights "bad trip". "I just wanted a little smoke, I wasn't after 100 times worse than the strongest LSD, and that's what it was like," he said. "Whatever you do, don't touch this stuff. "It's evil." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.