I've only been in a headshop once in my life since they started selling proper (albeit badly cut and packaged and branded) drugs.
It was at the height of legal meph, which I was buying online happily. There were a couple of mobile phone numbers on the door to call and get home-delivery 24 hours if the shop was shut.
I bought a crack pipe.
Would never buy a branded powder.
Same. Well, not now, I had a few dalliances with Spice in me yoot. Only bringing this up cos my Mum knows I've been ordering Etiz and we had a discussion about it this morning. I'm trying to explain to her about the whole safeorscam place, word of mouth from trusted friends/BLers, lab tests etc. but she's still convinced it's the same as buying a packet of 'Blow' or 'Benzofury' or 'Cunted' or whatever and that I don't know what's in it. Tried to explain pillreports and the the testing kits you can buy for various substances but no dice. She's all 'what's to stop me setting up a site and selling people salt?' and I'm like 'well nothing, but word would get round fast' (though I did bite my tongue before I said 'because you can't use a fucking computer') and you've got your referral based websites mentioned above to fight against this sort of thing.
The way these things are branded reminds me of the uproar they had when Hooch first came onto the market in the mid 90s and they had this whole 'think of the children' thing. And for once, I agree. If I was fifteen or sixteen I'd be walking out with bags full of the shit and shoving it up my nose.
I showed her lab reports regarding the etiz I bought after she said 'you don't know what's in it' but she just said 'I could write on a piece of paper that I have A Levels and people would believe me'. So in the end we both agreed to disagree; that I can do what I want in her house as long as it's legal and I don't flip out and eat someone's face off, and she won't hassle me but she won't accept my point of view either. So I guess I'm happy with that, she has as much right to her opinion as I do to mine, it's just frustrating. She raised the point that I think I'm an expert on everything but I'm not, knowing about drugs is just a hobby of mine. I could make crack, or go score some smack or whatever but I don't. I told her that I haven't done 'hard' drugs since my late teens and if someone offered me a line now I would turn it down unless I knew exactly what it was and didn't come out of a shiny foil packet. Drugs, tea, and videogames are the three things I make it a point to know a lot about, and although I know shit compared to some of you lot, I know enough to keep myself safe. I think she's accepted that at least, as she has often rung me for advice on medication.
I actually gave her a 1mg pill because she was insistent she was going to the doctors to get it tested. Told her to go for it. Sorry all that turned into a rant, but I really feel like the branding of certain legal highs isn't only dangerous, but detrimental to those of us who go through research and reviews and whatnot and get told 'you'd take anything'. I put a hell of a lot of time and effort in before I found the two or three vendors I now use.
Of course the whole demonisation and illegality of drugs is detrimental to peoples health too but that's not gonna change any time soon. I'd like to see less focus on shiny packaging and more on legit sites with legit products that detail everything in them, but that won't happen either.
edit: sorry, I'm pretty off topic there, just MM's post and the discussion this morning got me thinking.