Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/08/how-the-uks-drug-prohibition.html
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Seriously, just legalize and regulate JWH-018 and CP 47,497
Those are more or less safe. Compared with all the exotic work-around chemistry being done to try and get around anti-analog laws.
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How much misery, death, and expense could be avoided by ending the War on Drugs? If only the Enforcement Agencies weren’t* addicted to their sky-rocketting budgets.
*Edited for brain fade. Thanks, @anothernewbbaccount
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This sort of thing has been happening for ages with drugs and smart chemists fiddling with molecules to try to change their legality, and then head shops selling the results as dubious legal highs. That’s why the UK introduced the Psychoactive Substances Act in 2016 to ban anything that “by stimulating or depressing the person’s central nervous system … affects the person’s mental functioning or emotional state”, with exceptions for booze, food, medicine etc.
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It’s pointless to try to regulate someone else’s state of mind.
Practically tyrannical if you ask me.
There are so many more important things to regulate in draconian ways than people trying to have a good time.
I’d prefer the governments spend their time and efforts breaking monopolies, and curtailing the freedoms of multibillion dollar corporations.
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Weren’t?
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Or…um… cannabis. Safer than any of it.
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I read somewhere that some people prefer the spice high 
I tried it years ago, must have been one of the earlier formulas, and it was not unpleasant, but as a heavy cannabis user it didn’t quite do the trick for me. The new stuff sounds way too dangerous.
Cannabis (by which I mean delta-9 THC) is fairly unique in that it is only a partial agonist to the CB1 endocannabinoid receptor, which makes it nearly impossible to overdose on. None of the synthetic cannabinoids are partial agonists. They are as dangerous as any other drug.
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Yep. This game has been devastating in NZ.
Prohibit MDMA and it’s BZP.
Prohibit LSD and it’s N-bomb.
Prohibit amphetatmines and it’s homecooked methamphetamines.
Prohibit cannabis and it’s “synthetic” cannabinoids.
I’m unsure who wins most from this prohibition bullshit but I know who loses - the same small percentage of vulnerable people who will self-medicate regardless of legislation.
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Spice is technically a Dune reference, but yes, Lucas did take that bit for Star Wars.
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I used spice for a few weeks when I must’ve been 19 or 20.
It is a massively intense high. The only thing approching it is hash oil dabs.
But I remember it only lasted maybe 20 minutes.
Occasionally it was a bit like maybe having a seizure. Kinda like sprained my brain.
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I got so high, I made the Kessel run in just eleven parsecs!
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“Here, try this MDMA-flavored booze!”
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Synthetic drugs like Spice should be illegal, they cause more problems than they’re worth. Just legalize what it is trying to emulate, which is cannabis.
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“Prohibition always leads to unexpected consequences.”
This is the most predictable consequence at this point. Practically guaranteed. Almost every single hardcore street drug out there has some natural analogue that was used at least somewhat safely and non-destructively for hundreds of years before it got prohibited, making ease of access, smuggling, and risk vs. return into factors.
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And one could easily plant it in a greenhouse and make it at home. And making less problematic to plant hemp makes easier do other things, like dresses:https://www.hempest.com/
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Unsurprisingly, they thought of this, and defined alcholic drinks as
any product which contains alcohol, and does not contain any [other] psychoactive substance.
Given that hops are mildly psychoactive, I think this might have technically made beer illegal.
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