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UK-Legal high drug deaths soar in UK

theatarisfan

theatarisfan

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Nov 19, 2013
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Legal high drug deaths soar in UK


"Health researchers have claimed that those who experiment with legal highs are "dancing in a minefield" as they highlight a leap in the number of recent deaths in Britain connected with the synthetic drugs.

Experts who compile the annual report of the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths based at St George's, University of London, say the number of deaths in which legal highs such as Meow, Meow and Benzo Fury, have been directly implicated have risen from 10 in 2009 to 68 in 2012.

The increase in the number of deaths in which legal highs were identified as the cause of death comes as the overall number of drug-related deaths has tumbled from more than 2,000 to 1,613 over the same period.

The same researchers say there has also been a big rise in the number of times legal highs has been mentioned as a cause of death along with alcohol and other drugs, from 12 in 2009 to 97 in 2012.

The figures were released as the government announces the latest move in efforts to curb drug misuse, with tougher penalties for the use of ketamine, the horse tranquilliser.

It is expected to be moved from a class C to a class B drug, meaning illegal possession could lead to a five-year jail sentence, after the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs warned that frequent use could cause "severe and disabling" bladder damage. Frequent use has led to some people having their bladders removed."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/12/legal-high-drug-deaths-soar-uk
 
With many people switching from traditional drugs to the cheaper and more convenient "legal highs", surely the overall reduction in deaths may be attributed to the fact that the "legal highs" are proving safer, or have I missed something?
 
lol in my experience, legal drugs are the dangerous ones. the illegal ones are mostly dangerous only if you don't use responsibly ( some are inherently dangerous though, like heroin, cocaine, meth) but the legal ones are sold as if they are fine so people just assume they aren't even dangerous. when in actuality they are more likely to have an adverse reaction than if they were just using traditional illegal drugs. its really sad to be honest. I wonder sometimes how this world came to be such a WRONG place in so many aspects, especially drugs. Is reformation of the way society and authority view drugs even possible at this point?
 
^ sigh. You're saying that drugs are only dangerous if you don't use them responsibly, unlike drugs like heroin *insert boogie man maniacal laugh* which is simply an evil drug that kills everyone who uses it.

This needs to stop.
 
In my hometown legal highs are treated exactly the same as illegal ones - people go to dealers to get them some EP or whatever. My friend bought some and showed me this typical black baggy with the vendors website on it, IUPAC name. The dealer basically just ordered straight off the internet and sold for almost double the price. I tried explaining what happened to my friend and he was like nahhhh this is legit.

I bring this up because those people don't distinguish between these illegal or legal highs so death rates should be the same.

but yeah anyway, legalisation of the classics will result in much better knowledge, information and safety of the drugs. Silly idiots.
 
The idiots who come out with these reports on 'party drugs' being so dangerous need to get it in perspective. Alcohol is a 'legal high'. I want them to tackle all the deaths and problems associated with that one before moving on to these 'frightening new designer drugs'.
 
opi8 said:
^ sigh. You're saying that drugs are only dangerous if you don't use them responsibly, unlike drugs like heroin *insert boogie man maniacal laugh* which is simply an evil drug that kills everyone who uses it.

This needs to stop.
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Not sure what you mean. I never said drugs are "only dangerous if you dont use them responsibly." I said "illegal drugs are mostly dangerous only if you dont use them responsibly." There is a big difference. I set no ultimatums as you claim. Oh yea....and what i mean about heroin, meth, cocaine, etc is that they have a high chance to be used irresponsibly even if attempts are made to use them properly. this is due to a thousand reasons, some of which are that they are illegal, unregulated, adulterated, undereducated users and the drugs themselves are highly addictive. I am going off what I see first hand. Weed doesnt often cause near the addiction of say, meth. I speak only from experience of myself and my observations and I am in a hurry or I would flesh out my response a lot more. I just hope you realize you are severely mistaken in your understanding of what I said. I have used all the drugs I listed so I am in no position to laugh maniacally unless I am playing dungeon master in a game of D&D
 
I think basically from experience, the young people find out about the drugs through what is generally the media. Then don't research properly, and because of this they assume they are legal because they have been tested and deemed fit by the government personally
 
Hiltoniano said:
Not sure what you mean. I never said drugs are "only dangerous if you dont use them responsibly."
Click to expand...

I will quote what you said.

lol in my experience, legal drugs are the dangerous ones. the illegal ones are mostly dangerous only if you don't use responsibly ( some are inherently dangerous though, like heroin, cocaine, meth)
Click to expand...

You said that legal drugs are dangerous. The illegal ones are mostly dangerous only if you don't use responsibly (unless that drug is heroin, coke or meth).

That's what you said, not what you meant maybe, but it is what you said.
 
Legal high deaths are bound to "soar" because hundreds of drugs can be described as "legal highs", in the media, even ex-legal highs still headline as legal highs. That means that if someone dies from a really nasty unknown substance that "mimics the effects" of PMA (as if anyone would actually want that) then it proves that MXE, 6-APB and methylone are also "deadly" (I know they are all now illegal in the UK but that's part of the problem I'm describing) because they are also "legal highs". The longer the list of legal and ex-legal highs gets, the more dangerous compounds can be blame-shifted in the media to encompass relatively benign of the "legal highs". I suppose, taken to its logical conclusion, we end up with caffeine being a "deadly so-called legal high" that "ruins lives and blights communities" and residents "blast" seedy shops that "peddle" and "push" the stuff right opposite the school gates.
 
theatarisfan said:
The figures were released as the government announces the latest move in efforts to curb drug misuse, with tougher penalties for the use of ketamine, the horse tranquilliser...
Click to expand...
It always bugs me when propagandists define a substance by it's most sensational use. What's next, demonizing water by calling it "Hitler hydrator"? :/
 
edgarshade said:
I suppose, taken to its logical conclusion, we end up with caffeine being a "deadly so-called legal high" that "ruins lives and blights communities" and residents "blast" seedy shops that "peddle" and "push" the stuff.
Click to expand...

Deadly caffeine you say? Sounds like this young lady dodged death by caffiene by the skin of her teeth!

What I found interesting about this story was that the caffeine toxicity set in only the next morning, many hours after the drinking session. I wonder if any ecstacy deaths, some of which occur, strangely, many hours after clubbing sessions, sometimes in bed or on the sofa might've been due to a similar mechanism. Is it possible folk are able to drink much more alcohol when they're on Ecstacy & it's only after the E has worn off that alcohol toxicity sets in...? Off topic I know, but an interesting postulation...

A teenager’s heart stopped three times and she had to be put in a coma after a two-hour Jägerbomb binge.

Student Jayde Dinsdale drank ten cocktails of the spirit Jägermeister and energy drink Red Bull on a two-for-one night.

But eight hours later, the 18-year-old collapsed in the bathroom at home and her life was saved by her father Darryl, 38, performing CPR learned from TV adverts starring Vinnie Jones.

Jayde, who spent 52 hours in a medically induced coma, is convinced the caffeine in the energy drinks was to blame and is calling for controls on their sale.

She said: ‘I hope people will think twice about drinking energy drinks. They could be deadly.’

The tourism and travel student said she spent two hours at a club on her night out last month. She was chatting to her mother, Natalie, as she washed her face the next morning when she collapsed.
Her mother, 38, said: ‘Her pulse was very faint and she started to go purple. She was dead on the bathroom floor. It’s a miracle that Jayde is still with us.’

Jayde had two more cardiac arrests after being taken to Yeovil Hospital, where she spent three weeks recovering.

Her family believes the caffeine only kicked in once the effects of the alcohol, which slows down the heart, wore off.

Energy drinks have previously been linked to health problems in the young, including the death of Joshua Merrick, 19, from Manchester, last year.

Red Bull declined to comment but, in the past, has insisted a can only contains the same caffeine as a cup of coffee.
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from - http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/06/teena...drinking-ten-jagerbombs-in-two-hours-4449369/
 
According to the article there were 87 less "drug" deaths and 58 more legal high deaths. Sounds like a good thing....
 
Drugs are dangerous. Meth took a lot of lives when it came out too, still people are safely tokin away.
 
MDMA was once a legal high
2C-B was once a legal high
LSd was legal
Meth used to be legal too
Weed was legal
Legal and Illegal drugs are both dangerous and also don't instantly turn u into a zombie like the news says.
 
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