DM - Legal high deaths rise by 800% in three years: Users warned they are 'dancing...

edgarshade

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Legal high deaths rise by 800% in three years: Users warned they are 'dancing in a minefield' after huge increase

PUBLISHED: 02:08, 12 February 2014

With reader comments

  • Ninety-seven people were found dead with substances in system in 2012
  • Death toll has risen by eight times in three years, figures have revealed
  • In around two thirds of cases, legal high found to be direct cause of death
  • Hester Stewart, 21, and Adam Hunt, 18, both died after taking legal highs
  • Last night, Norman Baker said he was determined to clamp down on issue
Users of legal highs have been warned that they are ‘dancing in a minefield’ after a huge surge in the number of deaths. Ninety-seven people were found dead with the substances in their system in 2012, up from 12 in 2009. It means the toll has risen by eight times in three years. In around two thirds of cases, the post-mortem examination established that the legal high was the direct cause of death. Professor Fabrizio Schifano, of the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths at St George’s University of London, warned: ‘These type of drugs are showing up more than ever before. ‘Clearly this is a major public health concern and we must continue to monitor this worrying development. Those experimenting with such substances are effectively dancing in a minefield.’

The figures were compiled from reports submitted to the university by coroners. Of the 97 deaths involving legal highs, around a third were chemically similar to the illegal drug mephedrone – known as meow meow or bubbles. Others mimicked the effects of amphetamines such as ketamine, while one was linked to a synthetic form of cannabis. In many cases, users took multiple substances as well as alcohol.

The report warns that many legal highs have undergone no human testing and the damage they do is ‘virtually unknown’. Maryon Stewart, whose medical student daughter Hester died after taking the legal high GBL, warned: ‘Young people are largely unaware of how grave a threat they face from legal highs. ‘With precious little education on these substances, young people are living in an information vacuum. ‘The appalling tragedies in the report are all avoidable so it is absolutely critical everyone wakes up to the dangers to our children from these untested substances.’

Another legal high victim was Adam Hunt, who bought a substance called AMT over the internet from Holland in August. Four days after he took the drug, he was dead. His mother Bernadette found the 18-year-old collapsed in his bedroom.

More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-warned-dancing-minefield-huge-increase.html
 
Meanwhile, on the same website:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-102707/Alcohol-deaths-rise-third.html

Alcohol deaths rise by a third

Alcohol is taking a tragic toll on British health, with the number of drink-related deaths up by a third since the mid-1980s.

Excessive drinking is now implicated in 33,000 deaths a year, according to a report launched yesterday.

Alcohol misuse is costing the NHS up to £3billion a year, with more than 28,000 hospital admissions caused by alcohol dependence or poisoning.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-102707/Alcohol-deaths-rise-third.html#ixzz2t9uBBSnx
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Haha, awesome find Crank! People are fucking dumb though. Want to stop people from using legal slys? Make the chemicals their emulating legal and regulated! Then we would also be able to test possibly good and psychoactive chemicals to potentially garner their risks. I don't understand how an actual adult with any semblance of a working brain thinks that chemical use could ever truly be eradicated without doing something impossible or I insane like destroying every single existing chemical and abolishing pretty much every medication. Even if they somehow accomplished that people would still probably find ways to get ahold of elements to make what they need albeit on a smaller scale but still....
 
Em... Ketamine is a legal high which mimics the effects of amphetamines? What happened to the horse tranquiliser line? How much speed does it take to knock out animals?
 
I wouldn't touch research chemicals, that's some nasty garbage........might as well huff aerosol spray, etc......
 
That's a very narrow veiwpoint. I ceased to purchase illegal drugs once I found I could acquire legal stimulants & psychedelics. I felt that amongst the more professional RC supliers I was much more likely to get value for money & pure product & this has proven the case many times since 2008. I'm not the sort to just neck any old shit, I have particular interests & if the RC scene can offer something in my area of interest I'll try it very carefully, after alot of reading & research. Once in awhile I find something truly unique & amazingly useful, such as Al-Lad.

I'm actually against the sale of Research Chemicals as "Legal Highs". I am fine about intelligent persons purchasing those compounds that may have psychoactive capabilities but have not yet been banned, measuring their doses carefully, titrating, & reporting any experience they may have. I am not in favour of money grabbing arseholes packaging up any old legal chemical at some random dosage, flavouring it with strawberry, sticking in a shiney red packet & flogging to any idiot regardless of age or experience, who walks through into the shop.

Research Chemicals for diligent researchers & psychonauts, fine, glossilly packaged "Legal Highs" sold to stupid teens, not fine!

All the legal drugs, even the synthetic cannabis shit, are seriously fucked...

... that synthetic cannabinoid shit seems to be causing alot of health problems, some serious, some fatal!
 
fuck synth cannabinoids, the psychedelics of old should be completely legal as they've been tested and used so therefore people would be aware of its dangers or whatever. if the likes of LSD, mescaline, 2c-x were legal or decriminalized there wouldnt be any room on the market for the other shit.
 
I agree, the first thing that came to mind was ignorance... there are RC psychedelics that are far safer than alot of street drugs. Using your logic meth is like smoking drano. I'd trust a 4-sub tryptamine over "coke", "meth", or "ecstasy" anyday. People seem to forget that all drugs were RC's at one point and same goes for pharmaceuticals. Pharm companies do shitty month long trials and declare it safe whilst the public are lab rats for the long-term effects of the medications. Lol just earlier I was watching TV when a commercial came on warning people that Risperdol will cause your teenager to grow tits (gynecomastia).
 
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