Secret ingredients in "legal highs"

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Some of you may have experience with 'legal bud', 'herbal E', or any type of herbal mixture to be smoked or swallowed. Especially now that many herbs have also become illegal (in many places Ephedra, Yohimbe, Kava and even St.Jonswort are illegal drugs) manufacturers of herbal alternatives have to keep finding ways to get the customer high.

It is whispered that some herbal products contain secret ingredients, that the manufacturer does not disclose to anyone. When I first heard this a couple of weeks ago, I felt very disturbed. Because having been an orthomolecular therapist and pharmacist myself, I'm used to the fact that the composition of all vitamin and herbal tablets must correspond exactly to what is written on the label. A company can list a "special blend" (something you often find on the labels of weight loss products), but then the company does have to submit the formula of that "special blend" to some official agency. In this way the safety of the public is assured and the company doesn't have to worry about their product being copied by imitators.

If the whispers are true, and certain smoke blends in fact do contain secret ingredients, psycho-active ingredients that is, what exactly is their effect on the body and on the human spirit?

Is it an opiate or an outright synthetic?

I don't know, but it all feels very unethical to me. Sure, people will be happy that they can get high and smoke it without fear of being busted, but what if the secret substance is in fact carcinogenic or a neurotoxin?

Is being exclusive worth taking the risk of harming thousands of human beings? Shouldn't we consider this a crime against the psychonaut community?

If there is a secret ingredient, aren't the manufacturers putting the entire smart shop scene at risk?

What if a vendor, or an employee, feels pangs of conscience over this matter? What should he do? Miss out on the profit? There are no easy answers to these questions.

Anyway, a person named Benga wrote a text about it on the Drugs Forum, which you can read below.

What do you think about it?

CM





Hello all,

This thread was posted in this forum as it focuses on one particular issue of the “legal highs

 

[GOD]

If there are secret ingredients its iresponsible and either the sellers / producers should be forced to say what they are or be forced to remove them . Its also illegal if its marked as fit for human consumption = administering medicines / poisons .

If its true and the pigs get wind of it they will soon stop it . ( That isnt a call to send products that are suposed to contain secret ingredients to the pigs to get them tested ) .

I think its probable that its either web shit or that its an atempt by the sellers / producers to make products that dont work sell .

 

[GOD]

If its true its somewhere between unethical and a crime . It has to be cleared up . Maybe retailers should ask for a garantee of whats in the products , a full list of ingredients or at least an explanation . I personaly wouldnt feel comfortable selling things with secret ingredients . Who can know the consequencys , who can take that responsibility ?

 

[SpiralArchitect]

This is pretty interesting stuff.

TBH, it scares me. It's only going to make people continue to stigmatize drugs.

'oh these lucrative companies don't care about their users, they are in it for the money, etc.'

I might understand some reasoning behind using a benign substance in these 'legal highs' for one to avoid prosecution/opening this substance for prohibition and public fear (as in the case with salvia, kratom, etc. in the US) but being a true believer in 'know your source' it doesn't fly right with me.

Buying anything, I like to know what I am really buying, food labels may be misleading but as one pointed out they are quite different than psychoactive chemicals. Still, a list of ingredients should be essential, and although I have not bought legal highs (No interest in taking them) before from what I understand their is a list of ingredients, but it is quite vague.

Anyways, good for thought and I'll pass it on.... thnx

 

[restin]

There is (or was) a lot of talk about Spice containing not-mentioned chemicals. A web-shop even stopped selling this stuff after they found out that additional things were added to it (I think that this was in a post of this forum, I`ll look and post the link when I find it).

It also makes me scared,especially because of the war on drugs that forces some people to try out new, legal stuff that is easier to get etc.

 

[WetStaples]

If they're totally not mentioning the existence of these secret ingredients, then I agree that they should be stopped/punished. But if they at least told you that there were secret ingredients, then I think it's just a case of buyer beware.

 

[GOD]

"buyer beware."

I agree . But someone should tell them that every time the stuff gets sold .