MUSIC fans flocking to Glastonbury risk psychiatric damage if they are tempted to get high on cheap mind bending drugs containing dangerous cocktails of herbs, doctors warned today. The growing popularity of "herbal highs" such as Salvia, Kratom and Morning Glory seeds - marketed as alternatives to illegal substances - is a "worrying trend", they say.
Psychiatrists Dr Martin Schmidt and Dr Ken Checinksi said manufacturers are creating widely available designer drugs from a hotchpotch of shamanic plants, synthetic stimulants and psychedelic cacti and "who knows what it can do".
Unveiling their research at the Royal College of Psychiatrists annual meeting in Edinburgh, they advised revellers at the festival to steer clear of such "poly-substance products" - drugs containing a number of ingredients. Thousands of festival goers are turning their backs on traditional narcotics and switching instead to so called 'legal highs' because they appear to be just as effective as illegal drugs.
Dr Schmidt, a senior registrar at St George's University of London, said: "We came across one or two patients who were using substances that we had not heard of and they said were legal and so we did an investigation on the internet so see what was being sold. "Herbal highs have been around for a few years but are increasing in availability. They are being sold online and in 'head shops' with a lot of fanfare. Even health shops sell some, if not all of them." Said Dr Schmidt: "What worries me is that they are putting together a whole bunch of psychoactive chemicals and stimulants and who knows what it can do. "I do not believe the average user of this stuff even bothers to read the label on the back. They see something that says Original Herbal Ecstasy, and they take it without looking. "But they could cause psychiatric damage particularly if they are taken by accident – and it can be very frightening. We have seen people who present at psychiatric hospitals in a substance induced psychosis.
"The take home message is that we really need to start looking at these substances to see if there is any long term physical or psychological damage."
It was the boom in sales of magic mushrooms, later banned, that kickstarted the industry. A legal loophole led to a proliferation of vendors. The mushrooms' reliable and mostly benevolent psychedelic effects changed public perception of legal highs. Big seller Kratom is an obscure opium substitute plant from Thailand and has been dubbed the "herbal speedball" due its apparent euphoric effects. Believed to work on the same receptors in the brain as heroin, Kratom initially induces alertness, increasing physical energy and the desire to interact with others. At higher doses it becomes a sedative, constricting the pupils and desensitising the user to physical and emotional pain. The effects last for up to six hours. Magic mushroom sellers have switched to selling another mushroom, not yet outlawed - the red and white spotted Fly Agaric toadstool, which contains the psychoactive chemicals muscimol and ibotenic acid which can trigger delirious, dream like states and can be dangerous in overdose.
Thanks to the effectiveness of these legal highs and the large customer base created by the mushroom boom, the trade is thriving in shops and on the web, with shoppers exploiting secure credit card orders and 24 hour websites. Salvia is a herb used for centuries by Mexican Indians in religious ceremonies. It produces a powerful hallucinogenic effect when chewed, drunk in an infusion or smoked through a pipe. Also known as Diviner's Sage and Sally D many users claim to have vivid out-of-body experiences, though others suffer only terrifying nightmares. Baby woodrose and Morning Glory seeds bring on hallucinations lasting six to eight hours and nutmeg, half a dozen of which can be ground down, produce 24 hours of hallucinations.
Then there is the San Pedro cacti, which contains the outlawed psychedelic substance mescaline, and is prepared as a tea and Ma Huang, an ayurvedic preparation containing ephidrine. BZP – now licensed as a medicine and harder to obtain – is a stimulant. Most, particularly nutmeg – produce nasty side effects such as nausea, vomiting, psychosis and acute anxiety. Dr Schmidt said: "These substances are being classified as either food or herbs and there has not been any research into the possible side effects, despite the combination of ingredients and quantities involved. "They have a big profile now and compared with drink and cigarettes they are easily affordable, so you can see the attraction of them to festival goers. "The fear is alot of Glastonbury visitors will be buying them when they do not know what the long term harm may be, particularly when they are mixed with other substances such as alcohol.
"What concerns me are these are poly-substance preparations, which are packaged and marketed to this young crowd. One product we found, called Original Herbal Ecstasy, contains nutmeg, hallucinogenic mushrooms and a lot of stimulants." He said such herbal highs, mostly imported from the Netherlands, New Zealand and India, are designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs, and users rate the effects and report their experiences online. But manufacturers fail to list side effects or provide adequate information about potential interactions with other substances, such as alcohol
Source: LSE
And there is a so-true commentary at Dosenation.
Psychiatrists Dr Martin Schmidt and Dr Ken Checinksi said manufacturers are creating widely available designer drugs from a hotchpotch of shamanic plants, synthetic stimulants and psychedelic cacti and "who knows what it can do".
Unveiling their research at the Royal College of Psychiatrists annual meeting in Edinburgh, they advised revellers at the festival to steer clear of such "poly-substance products" - drugs containing a number of ingredients. Thousands of festival goers are turning their backs on traditional narcotics and switching instead to so called 'legal highs' because they appear to be just as effective as illegal drugs.
Dr Schmidt, a senior registrar at St George's University of London, said: "We came across one or two patients who were using substances that we had not heard of and they said were legal and so we did an investigation on the internet so see what was being sold. "Herbal highs have been around for a few years but are increasing in availability. They are being sold online and in 'head shops' with a lot of fanfare. Even health shops sell some, if not all of them." Said Dr Schmidt: "What worries me is that they are putting together a whole bunch of psychoactive chemicals and stimulants and who knows what it can do. "I do not believe the average user of this stuff even bothers to read the label on the back. They see something that says Original Herbal Ecstasy, and they take it without looking. "But they could cause psychiatric damage particularly if they are taken by accident – and it can be very frightening. We have seen people who present at psychiatric hospitals in a substance induced psychosis.
"The take home message is that we really need to start looking at these substances to see if there is any long term physical or psychological damage."
It was the boom in sales of magic mushrooms, later banned, that kickstarted the industry. A legal loophole led to a proliferation of vendors. The mushrooms' reliable and mostly benevolent psychedelic effects changed public perception of legal highs. Big seller Kratom is an obscure opium substitute plant from Thailand and has been dubbed the "herbal speedball" due its apparent euphoric effects. Believed to work on the same receptors in the brain as heroin, Kratom initially induces alertness, increasing physical energy and the desire to interact with others. At higher doses it becomes a sedative, constricting the pupils and desensitising the user to physical and emotional pain. The effects last for up to six hours. Magic mushroom sellers have switched to selling another mushroom, not yet outlawed - the red and white spotted Fly Agaric toadstool, which contains the psychoactive chemicals muscimol and ibotenic acid which can trigger delirious, dream like states and can be dangerous in overdose.
Thanks to the effectiveness of these legal highs and the large customer base created by the mushroom boom, the trade is thriving in shops and on the web, with shoppers exploiting secure credit card orders and 24 hour websites. Salvia is a herb used for centuries by Mexican Indians in religious ceremonies. It produces a powerful hallucinogenic effect when chewed, drunk in an infusion or smoked through a pipe. Also known as Diviner's Sage and Sally D many users claim to have vivid out-of-body experiences, though others suffer only terrifying nightmares. Baby woodrose and Morning Glory seeds bring on hallucinations lasting six to eight hours and nutmeg, half a dozen of which can be ground down, produce 24 hours of hallucinations.
Then there is the San Pedro cacti, which contains the outlawed psychedelic substance mescaline, and is prepared as a tea and Ma Huang, an ayurvedic preparation containing ephidrine. BZP – now licensed as a medicine and harder to obtain – is a stimulant. Most, particularly nutmeg – produce nasty side effects such as nausea, vomiting, psychosis and acute anxiety. Dr Schmidt said: "These substances are being classified as either food or herbs and there has not been any research into the possible side effects, despite the combination of ingredients and quantities involved. "They have a big profile now and compared with drink and cigarettes they are easily affordable, so you can see the attraction of them to festival goers. "The fear is alot of Glastonbury visitors will be buying them when they do not know what the long term harm may be, particularly when they are mixed with other substances such as alcohol.
"What concerns me are these are poly-substance preparations, which are packaged and marketed to this young crowd. One product we found, called Original Herbal Ecstasy, contains nutmeg, hallucinogenic mushrooms and a lot of stimulants." He said such herbal highs, mostly imported from the Netherlands, New Zealand and India, are designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs, and users rate the effects and report their experiences online. But manufacturers fail to list side effects or provide adequate information about potential interactions with other substances, such as alcohol
Source: LSE
And there is a so-true commentary at Dosenation.
