Head shop products ‘will change rapidly’

HEAD shop products will continue to change at an “unprecedented speed” in order to circumvent legal controls, the EU’s drugs agency has said.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said it identified a record number of new mind-altering drugs last year. The body said 24 new psychoactive substances (all synthetic or manmade) were documented under the EU early-warning system (EWS) in 2009, compared to 13 in 2008.

“The EWS actively monitors unregulated psychoactive products — the so-called ‘legal highs’ — sold via internet or specialised (smart, head) shops, advertised with aggressive and sophisticated marketing strategies, and in some cases intentionally mislabelled with purported ingredients differing from the actual composition,” said the EMCCDA, in a report with Europol, the EU police agency.

“A distinct feature of the ‘legal highs’ phenomenon is the speed at which the suppliers circumvent drug controls by offering new unregulated alternatives that target specific groups of recreational drug users.”

The warning comes as the Government’s ban on a range of legal highs is due to come into effect in mid-July.

The report said significant developments in 2009 were the emergence of new smokeable herbal products, laced with synthetic cannabinoids (or manmade chemicals which mimic cannabis). These are often sold in “Spice” packets in head shops and over the internet.

The second major development was the spread of synthetic cathinones, which mimic the effects of amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy. Among these is mephedrone, which has been linked to a number of adverse reactions here.

It has been linked with a number of deaths in other EU countries, often in combination with other drugs.

Synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones are included in the list of drugs to be banned here.

The report said nine synthetic cannabinoids and four synthetic cathinones were reported through EWS in 2009. It said mephedrone was the subject of a formal data-collection exercised by the Emcdda and Europol.

“In view of the growing popularity and sales of mephedrone, it is important to consider the threat that this may pose by creating momentum for an undesirable transition, from a mostly online ‘legal highs’ market, originally driven by individual entrepreneurship, to one that involves organised crime,” the report said.

It added: “It can be anticipated that ‘designer drugs’ will continue to change at an unprecedented speed. It is expected that synthetic analogues of other major drug groups will appear. New synthetic opioids and cocaine derivatives have already been identified via the EWS.”

* www.emcdda.europa.eu