Aus - 'Legal high' shops mull $200m campaign

[poledriver]

Aus - 'Legal high' shops mull $200m campaign

Synthetic drug sellers have offered to foot a $200 million bill to test the legality of their products in a bid to keep selling them to Australians.

Following the death of north shore student Henry Kwan, who jumped off a third-floor balcony on Wednesday after taking a synthetic LSD tablet,

the association representing sellers of so-called ''legal highs'' will launch a major offensive against proposed new laws to ban synthetic drugs.

Eros, the national adult retail and entertainment association, will distribute hologram stickers to mark packets of drugs that have been scientifically tested,

implement an industry-wide ''code of practice'' for selling synthetic drugs and mount a legal challenge to proposed legislative changes that make it harder to sell the drugs.

A recent state government inquiry recommended outlawing almost all synthetic cannabinoids and giving the Minister for Fair Trading power to issue on-the-spot bans on products in adult shops, tobacconists and other stores.

Robbie Swan, co-ordinator of Eros, said simply banning synthetic drugs would not stop their spread in Sydney and they should be regulated and taxed.

Synthetic drugs are products containing chemicals artificially developed to mimic the effects of cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamine.

They exist in a grey legal area because manufacturers tweak their recipes to circumvent illegal drug classifications.

One new synthetic drug emerges on the European market every week and the two drugs believed to be involved in Henry Kwan's death, 25I-NBOMe and 25B-NBOMe, are among hundreds coming in to Australia.

''The tough-on-drugs policy is rendered null and void with these new drugs,'' Mr Swan said.

''You can't just keep banning them. The government needs to work with the people who are manufacturing and selling these things to make them safe.

We're trying to implement a form of industry self-regulation in the absence of any sensible government regulation.''

Mr Swan urged NSW to follow the lead of New Zealand, where the onus of proof has been reversed and retailers can sell synthetic drugs if they have proved they are safe and contain legal compounds only.

He said sellers were willing to foot the bill for scientific testing - about $2 million per drug - because the returns were so lucrative. The annual turnover in Australia is $700 million and there are about 100 synthetic drugs in circulation,

Eros said. If the drugs were regulated and taxed like alcohol, the return for the government would be $200 million a year. Under the plan, each tested drug would have a hologram sticker,

carry a list of ingredients, a warning label and dosage guidelines and be sold responsibly as per a ''code of practice''.

However, the inquiry decided against taking the New Zealand approach and the committee chairman and Liberal MP, Dominic Perrottet, slammed Eros' self-regulation scheme as dangerous.

''The committee totally agrees with the idea that we need to give certainty to people - but we don't give certainty by saying some formerly illicit drugs are now OK to take,'' he said. ''We need a solution now. Another boy has just died.''

NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts is pushing for an interim 90-day ban on selling synthetic drugs.

Mr Roberts is consulting police, NSW Health and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission but a spokesman said a ban was likely ''sooner rather than later''.

Breaking the interim ban on selling the products over the counter would come with fines of up to $1.1 million.

''I want to impress upon the public that every time they are considering using these products, they are risking their lives,'' Mr Roberts said.

''People will need to step up and realise that they are endangering themselves if they consume these.''

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said she was willing to work with states to prevent synthetic drugs circulating.

Nearly one in 10 17-year-old boys and one in 20 17-year-old girls admitted to taking hallucinogens in the federal government's survey of secondary school students last year.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/heal...0m-campaign-20130607-2nvi9.html#ixzz2VYmLlU1p

 

[Portillo]

''People will need to step up and realise that they are endangering themselves if they consume these.''

Does that include alcohol, or is that one of the "safe ones"?

 

[my3rdeye]

A "synthetic LSD tablet" ? Thats why I take organic LSD.

 

[23536]

A "synthetic LSD tablet" ? Thats why I take organic LSD.

I get mine from an LSD tree in my back yard. I also have a hydromorphone rattlesnake.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Sounds like synthetic heroin tbph.

 

[Clocktower]

I hope NZ gets their program off the ground, if they do it will be fascninating to see how the situation develops in both countries.

 

[poledriver]

Synthetic drug ban won't halt online link

NSW will ban the sale of about 30 synthetic drugs on Sunday, with retailers ordered to pull the products from their shelves immediately.

But the ban is unlikely to curb use of the synthetic LSD drug that led to the death of 17-year-old Henry Kwan last week, as the drug is purchased only online.

Experts say the statewide retail ban could even push users towards more dangerous synthetic drugs available on the internet.

The 90-day interim ban will cover about 30 synthetic drugs, identified by the NSW police drug squad, which have been proved to cause harm when misused.

NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts was expected to hold a news conference on Sunday morning to call on the federal government and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to make the ban permanent and nationwide.

The measure follows recommendations from a parliamentary report released last month that the minister issue interim bans on synthetic drugs that ''will or may cause injury to any person''.

The head of emergency services at St Vincent's Hospital, Gordian Fulde, said he had noticed a significant increase in the number of people presenting with side effects from synthetic drugs over the past year,

particularly among teenagers and those in their early 20s. And, he said, his peers at other hospitals had noticed similar increases.

''This is not just a boutique Kings Cross clubbing drug,'' he said. ''It's everywhere.''

Fiona Patten, chief executive of the Eros Association, Australia's adult retail and entertainment association, said the ban would have a minimal effect as ''most'' synthetic drugs were bought over the internet.

She said the association would look at appealing the decision.

Monica Barratt, from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University, said while the ban would undoubtedly affect sales of some substances, it would be unlikely to reach the synthetic LSD taken by Kwan.

''And it may indeed drive other people towards this [drug], because they may have gone to the store and got something a lot more benign and now they are thinking about going to the [online drug marketplace] Silk Road,'' Dr Barratt said.

''It is going to be similar to the sorts of problems you get with Australian bricks and mortar stores not being able to compete with overseas websites,'' she said.

Mr Roberts said with new substances regularly appearing on the drug market, it was challenging for governments.

''But we are determined to do all we can,'' he said.

"Interim product safety bans are a step forward but we need the support of the Commonwealth in regard to products available around the country, over the internet and from overseas."

By listing products by brand name instead of chemical compounds, the ban aims to eliminate loopholes manufacturers have previously used to skirt bans by tweaking the make-up of their drugs.

NSW Fair Trading's assistant commissioner, Robert Vellar, said to prevent sellers from simply changing the name of their products, the ban notice would also encapsulate ''like products''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/synthetic-...#ixzz2Ve7btZeh

 

[Portillo]

Thank god the government is keeping us all safe.

 

[poledriver]

Temporary ban of synthetic drugs begins in NSW following death of Henry Kwan

The New South Wales Government is banning the sale of several synthetic drugs for 90 days following the death of a Sydney teenager.

Synthetic drugs have come under scrutiny after 17-year-old student Henry Kwan jumped off a balcony while allegedly under the influence of a drug that mimics LSD.

The ban applies to a range of drugs that mimic the effects of illegal drugs like cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamine.

NSW Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts says retailers have until Tuesday to clear their shelves of synthetic drugs or face fines of up to $1.1 million.

"Retailers are on notice now," he said.

"It is not acceptable for you to continue selling these products that cause harm."

Mr Roberts says a record number of officers will be deployed to enforce the interim ban.

"On Tuesday we will see the largest taskforce in the Commonwealth's history in this area actually going out into the field," he said.

"There will be over a 150 officers deployed this week, to go out to retailers to remove these products, to fine retailers, to search and seize and to apply the full force of the law."

He says the next step is to approach the Federal Health Minister and Assistant Treasurer to make the bans permanent.

But retail groups say the ban will not work.

Robbie Swan from the adult and entertainment group Eros Association says synthetic drugs should be regulated instead.

"They can look at the packet and say it was manufactured here, it was manufacture on this date, it's got this in it," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-09/nsw-introduces-interim-ban-on-some-synthetic-drugs/4742394