Legal high deaths ‘tip of iceberg’, says doctor

  By Kevin Morris | 14/01/2013 - 08:04 | In The News, Policing - General

Deaths linked to legal highs may just be the first signs of the damage they do, according to a medical expert.

In total 43 people in the UK died after taking now-outlawed methcathinones in 2010, the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths said.

This compared with five deaths in 2009, its report said.

The number of people using now-banned legal highs increased eight-fold between 2009 and 2010

But Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, founder of the Club Drug Clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said: “We may just be seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

A BBC investigation revealed untested chemicals were being sold in London.

“The concern I have is that in two or three years, we’ll begin to see the consequences of the harm that’s going on now,” Mr Jones added.

‘Unknown risks’

Dr John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St George’s Hospital, described how there are dozens of types of untested and sometimes deadly chemicals that are being sold legally in London.

Dr John Ramsey said users could not know the risks
“We put a urinal in Wardour Street in Soho and found 60 different drugs in there,” he said.

Dr John Ramsey said users could not know the risks

“I think these are probably the first people who have taken these compounds.

“They’ve never been evaluated as drugs anywhere in the world before,” he added.

“They can’t possibly know the risks of the compounds they’re taken.”

He described how “these things are made in China, shipped over here, a kid buys a gram and takes it”.

As part of its investigation, BBC Inside Out legally ordered £640 of chemicals from China, packaged in a bag labelled: “Harmful if swallowed. May damage an unborn child. Avoid breathing dust and fumes. If exposed, call a poison centre”.

Experts told the programme these are the type of chemicals that are sold in 1g bags for £15 each in London – meaning the £640 of chemicals from China could have a London street value of £15,000.

‘Kids dying’

Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) drugs spokesman Tim Hollis said: “Kids are sending around party invites with a link on where to buy your drugs.

“The Home Office and police find that extremely difficult to get our heads around and we are flat footed.”

Some of the drugs have now been banned but new ones keep appearing

Baroness Molly Meacher, of the Parliamentary Drug Policy Group, said: “The UK Border Agency has got great hangars full of little packets of white powder.

“They just simply haven’t got the technology, they haven’t got the money, they haven’t got the resources.

“They don’t know what’s in all those packages.”

The Metropolitan Police and UK Border Agency (UKBA) declined to be interviewed by BBC Inside Out.

But Dr Ramsey said: “Controlling substances… all it does is spawn the production of one that isn’t controlled.

“We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”

“I went in to Tesco naked and assaulted a police officer – they asked me what are you on? ”

Katie Wilson, Former Benzo Fury user

Katie 19, from east London, described her experience of taking now banned drug Benzo Fury.

“I got a lot of euphoria, happiness, I presumed like ecstasy,” she said. “After the Benzo had worn off, I swore I was going to die.”

“I went in to Tesco naked and assaulted a police officer.

“They asked me what sort are you on? Heroin? Crack? Crystal meth?”

Maryon Stewart’s daughter Hester died after taking the now banned substance GBL.

Ms Stewart has since set up the Angelas Foundation, which highlights the risks of legal highs.

“There are kids dying every week. The youngest I’ve heard of is 14 years old,” she said.

From the BBC

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4 Responses to Legal high deaths ‘tip of iceberg’, says doctor

  1. surreywebmaster says:
    14/01/2013 at 09:45

    And the only response we get is stupidity from MP’s and people who should know better --

    Dec 2012: Government should consider legalising drugs, MPs say

    The government should consider legalising drugs as Britain has failed to tackle dangerous dealers, MPs have warned.

    Decriminalisation “merits significantly closer consideration”, a year-long inquiry by the Commons home affairs select committee found.

    Keith Vaz, the committee’s chairman, said it was a “critical, now or never moment for serious reform”.

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  2. Dave Powell says:
    14/01/2013 at 12:52

    They could always call it ‘Soma’, ensure everyone takes at least one dose a day, and then we really will have a brave new world! The only difference between our politicians and the clowns at the circus is that the clowns usually acknowledge that they are clowns.

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    • surreywebmaster says:
      14/01/2013 at 15:15

      I’ll drink to that Dave… Thinking

      It’s taken a year and goodness know how much money for an MP’s working party to come up with this announced again today --

      Drugs ‘should be decriminalised’

      A group of cross-party peers has called for the possession and use of all illegal drugs to be decriminalised

      The possession and use of all illegal drugs should be decriminalised and the least harmful substances should be regulated and sold in licensed shops, an inquiry by a group of cross-party peers has found.

      A system for testing the safety of new drugs should be introduced with low-risk substances sold with labels detailing their risks, like cigarette packaging, members of the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform said.

      While the supply of the most dangerous substances should remain banned, users caught with a small quantity of any drug should not be penalised, the inquiry found. (NB: they will not need to be penalised, they will be dead. See -- Legal high deaths ‘tip of iceberg’, says doctor)

      The controversial proposals are likely to irk the Prime Minister, who recently rejected calls by MPs to set up a royal commission to consider the decriminalisation of illegal drugs.

      A panel of nine Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Crossbench peers from the all-party group conducted a parliamentary inquiry into new psychoactive substances. Presenting the inquiry findings, chair Baroness Meacher, who is also a chair of an NHS trust, said: “The Misuse of Drugs Act is counter-productive in attempting to reduce drug addiction and other drug harms to young people.”

      The Act, which has been in force for 40 years, is in desperate need of reform, the group said. The remaining sections of the act in use are causing “serious risks to the many young people who are determined to experiment with drugs”, the group said.

      The Act has forced thousands of young people into unemployment, homelessness and broken relationships, it added. In support of decriminalising the use of all drugs, the report alluded to the model in Portugal, where the numbers of young addicts has fallen under decriminalisation. And the proposals for regulating low-risk drugs echo those planned for New Zealand.

      The group said strict regulatory controls could be introduced with an enhanced role for Trading Standards Services in the UK.

      “Under these controls suppliers would, as is planned in New Zealand, be limited to certain outlets and required to label their product with a clear description of its contents, its risks and the maximum advisable dose,” the group said. The licensed supplier would also be responsible for assuring that the product causes an “agreed level of limited harm”.

      Prevention programmes should also be promoted much more widely within schools and the community, the group said. It also recommended that that a minimum of £1.5 million be made available for a targeted pilot of Club Drug Clinics in 10 major hot spots across the UK with a duty to train front line accident and emergency and general practitioner staff.

      Anything leap out at you?

      >A system for testing the safety of new drugs should be introduced with low-risk substances sold with labels detailing their risks, like cigarette packaging,

      >While the supply of the most dangerous substances should remain banned

      >“The Misuse of Drugs Act is counter-productive in attempting to reduce drug addiction and other drug harms to young people.”

      >The Act has forced thousands of young people into unemployment, homelessness and broken relationships

      >limited to certain outlets and required to label their product with a clear description of its contents, its risks and the maximum advisable dose,” the group said. The licensed supplier would also be responsible for assuring that the product causes an “agreed level of limited harm”.

      MMmmm, thought it might. Oh well, each budget day at least the Chancellor will have an excuse to up the taxes on yet another drug until the price escalates so much it will be pushed back underground along with fags and booze…..Frown

      We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered.
      Now what may foeman’s malice do to harm us? What, O Immortal, mortal man’s deception?

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  3. surreywebmaster says:
    15/01/2013 at 09:40

    Let young have drugs instead of drink, says peer as she compares taking substances to drinking coffee

    Crossbencher Baroness Meacher calls for heroin, ecstasy and crack cocaine to be decriminalised

    She heads cross-party group which says licences could be issued to allow drug dealers to sell so-called ‘legal highs’

    Senior police officer says arresting drug users was often pointless

    A CAREER IN QUANGOS

    Molly Meacher has held a string of public sector and quango posts in her career which have granted her significant influence over public life.
    Currently Baroness Meacher is paid up to £50,000 a-year to be chairman of the East London NHS Foundation Trust.
    The ex-wife of the Labour firebrand Michael Meacher, she worked as a social worker before becoming a commissioner for the Mental Health Act in 1987.
    She was a senior adviser to the Russian government on employment in the 1990s, while filling key roles on London health trusts.
    She is also a former deputy chairman of the Police Complaints Authority and chairman of the Security Industry Authority – a hugely controversial quango which granted hundreds of illegal immigrants permission to work as bouncers.

    Shout

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