Importing Laws - prohibited substances

http://www.tga.health.gov.au/docs/html/bringmed/apendixb.htm

so is that an exhaustive list? does anyone have any other links as to substances that are prohibited to import to Australia?

Also medical drugs that are not marketed here in Australia but are commonly in other countries, are they illegal to posses in Australia? Perhaps that depends on the specific substance, anyone have any information on that front also?

cheers
mcwally

If you're in doubt, contact the TGA and Customs

nah im asking here or I would have contacted them, similar to the research chemicals thread that was closed also but not heading towards sources

also stuff like carisoprodol (Soma US guys talk about) may well be able to be legally imported im not sure, and hydrocodone, cant seem to find any info on them. Is hydrocodone an illicit substance in Australia anyone know? These 2 medicines are unavailable in Aus but as hydrocodone is an opiod narcotic Id imagine its illegal to import but dunno

The Criminal Code has lists of controlled drugs/precursors and border controlled drugs/precursors as well.
Our analogue laws are some of the most broad ranging in the world, theres a MASSIVE amount of stuff covered as an analogue.

Incidentally, by the analogue definition in the criminal code, 2C-H (precursor to 2C-B, -I, etc but not 2C-E) would be legal to import, though highly suspect.

Yea ive often wondered if Soma is legal to import. Has someone actually asked the TGA for a reply on this substance?

also the legality of all these new pot substitutes that by all reports actually work - spice, spice gold, Sense, Spice Diamond, Toke XXX

legality of em here and import legality mmm anyone know? To mods this is in the spirit of the site as these arent all 'hard' drugs and we dont want to be charged/arrested for any of this stuff just informed.

so if any more lists or resources (on legality not sources ofcourse) on this stuff (inc carisopradol, hydrocodone and the above) that would be sweet, contacting the dam tga/customs may be a last resort if anymore info cant be gained here

Until we know what is the active ingredient in Spice Gold and others there is no way to know if its legal, however given the difficulties others have had in finding the active ingredient I doubt customs will have any more luck.

hm yeh, just thought about the stringent customs regs on organic/plant matter coming into aus maybe it would get held for that and not even possible cannabinoids.....

hmm thought that spice gold was pretty crappy for price?
always wanted to try that THC with methyl group added or the other potent THC analogs, ot spice gold that wasn't potent at all for the smoking taste

yeh tried the spice gold not bad at all, very very few sources in aus from what I can see but didnt have to import in the end, overpriced yeh but a legal high is pretty rare.

Its pretty sedating and muscle relaxing and gives the stoned eye feel, but not overly phsycoactive which can be a plus or minus depending on the person/occassion.

what about things like
Leonurine


Leonotis leonurus
Both leaves and flowers (where most concentrated) contain Leonurine. (Effects reminiscent of marijuana)
Leonurine


Leonotis nepetifolia
Both leaves and flowers (where most concentrated) contain Leonurine. (Effects reminiscent of marijuana)

i've had bloody customs quarantine a powder because it mentioned "herbs" in the ingredients.
they can reject just about anything 8)

mcwally said:

yeh tried the spice gold not bad at all, very very few sources in aus from what I can see but didnt have to import in the end, overpriced yeh but a legal high from an australian shop is pretty rare.

Its pretty sedating and muscle relaxing and gives the stoned eye feel, but not overly phsycoactive which can be a plus or minus depending on the person/occassion.

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*fixed.

and yeah spice gold is a rip off here.
i was hoping it would be better than weed in the sense that it would be calmer and not as trippy (I don't like weed), but i found it very simillar. needless to say i havn't used it since.

I urge extreme caution with importing Spice as it is very likely that the active ingredient is a synthetic cannabinoid. All cannabinoids are scheduled under the federal criminal code act and various state acts in australia.

There are 3 main reasons why I am certain of this cannabinoid constituent:

1) Top level industry chatter
2) Timing [Spice was released shortly after 2 cannabinoids were offered to ethnobotany vendors from chinese suppliers via a european distributor]
3) The ingredients listed do not produce the required effects

Tabaluga said:

I urge extreme caution with importing Spice as it is very likely that the active ingredient is a synthetic cannabinoid. All cannabinoids are scheduled under the federal criminal code act and various state acts in australia.

There are 3 main reasons why I am certain of this cannabinoid constituent:

1) Top level industry chatter
2) Timing [Spice was released shortly after 2 cannabinoids were offered to ethnobotany vendors from chinese suppliers via a european distributor]
3) The ingredients listed do not produce the required effects

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i disagree about urging caution.
for one, no-one has seemed to be able to prove this.
and secondly, you can buy it in Australia! (im sure the particular store checked with customs before they ordered a shipment)
but who knows...

of course quarantine would likely stop you importing it because its plant matter.

for one, no-one has seemed to be able to prove this.

yes, this surprises me too. However, a friend made a herbal matrix with CP55940 and then tried to analyse it by HPLC only to get a negative result. he hasn't been able to work out why.


and secondly, you can buy it in Australia! (im sure the particular store checked with customs before they ordered a shipment)

you are kidding, right? The only store I know that imports it was also importing and selling BZP liquid and ephedra pills until a few months ago. I am sure there are other importers and stores, but in my experience none of them know the laws too well. As for asking customs, customs can only advise on whatever product you declare it to be. So if a shop declares it to be whatever is on the back of the pack then customs will likely give it the all clear. This does not reduce the liability of the importer though if it turns out the content was not what it is labelled to be.

And to complicate things even further, if Spice actually does contain what it claims to contain, then it is illegal to import and to sell in all states in australia anyway, as at least one of the plant species listed contains a scheduled drug.

My caution is primarily in regards to test results that might be obtained at the border either via the swab or via GC/MS analysis, neither of which we can be sure has ever been done there. But as a secondary caution people should also keep in mind that sythetic cannabinoids may give positive results in urnine or blood tests as the metabolites which are tested for in some tests are the same as the metabolites one would expect from some synthetic cannabinoids. I will be putting this to the test as soon as my urine and saliva test kits arrive.


of course quarantine would likely stop you importing it because its plant matter.

Quarantine will just demand it to be nuked for $42 per shipment.

no probs its incense not for human consumption

Yep. And I swear my isobutyl nitrite is for video head cleaning, officer!

A preliminary analysis has been done on spice gold by another BLer and colleagues working in this field. Employing GC/MS, and processing/ interpretation of data using Chemstation/ Wiley (with NIST) Mass Spectral Library, it appears the active ingredients are not synthetic cannabinoids. A bioassy was conducted using rimonabant (a CB1 inverse agonist) and the effects of SG were only partially reversed.

I'm not at liberty to be too specific at this stage. It's possible (although unlikely) some THC type compounds could have been decomposed during the heating stage of the GC. However, the presence of an unrelated series of compounds, which have been identified with early results, indicates the active ingredients are a class of compounds not previously seen in recreational type products (to my knowledge anyway). If so, then there may well be additional implications for user health.

One thing that is known; the ingredients of spice gold aren't as claimed.

...we have enough data to prove that spice doesn't contain any of the listed ingredients through the lack of the distinctive terpines for the listed materials....

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What needs to be done next is a fractionation using prep HPLC, and the GC/MS re-run on the separated compounds. This is both costly and time consuming, so I don't know if the same group will be able to do this. If nothing is forthcoming, I could always approach the group that identified the neoganics products.

Sorry about the vagueness, more when it is known....

Tabaluga said:

for one, no-one has seemed to be able to prove this.

yes, this surprises me too. However, a friend made a herbal matrix with CP55940 and then tried to analyse it by HPLC only to get a negative result. he hasn't been able to work out why.

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CP55940 is notoriousy unstable though, is it not...that could explain something? I know that it degrades badly when travelling, to the point of being almost negligble in effects....

Honestly, I would never import anything "planty" into australia. Thats just me though.

Honestly, I would never import anything "planty" into australia. Thats just me though.

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I'm wary about every trying to import RC's, based on what I've heard about our Customs. Might be the only way I ever get to try them though.

A preliminary analysis has been done on spice gold by another BLer and colleagues working in this field. Employing GC/MS, and processing/ interpretation of data using Chemstation/ Wiley (with NIST) Mass Spectral Library, it appears the active ingredients are not synthetic cannabinoids. A bioassy was conducted using rimonabant (a CB1 inverse agonist) and the effects of SG were only partially reversed.

I'm not at liberty to be too specific at this stage. It's possible (although unlikely) some THC type compounds could have been decomposed during the heating stage of the GC. However, the presence of an unrelated series of compounds, which have been identified with early results, indicates the active ingredients are a class of compounds not previously seen in recreational type products (to my knowledge anyway). If so, then there may well be additional implications for user health.

One thing that is known; the ingredients of spice gold aren't as claimed.

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Very interesting...are you able to provide us with a copy of the preliminary analysis or a more detailed summary or anything? Give our thanks to the guys that did this as well!

If nothing is forthcoming, I could always approach the group that identified the neoganics products.

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If I may ask, who were these guys? Were they related to BlueLight or Enlighten or another HM organization?