A Look at Rise and Fall of Legal Highs Market In UK

Legal highs in the UK market had its rise and fall. The UK government on May 26, 2016 banned them all. But before that, let’s take a look at some developments that happened in the industry for the past years. Let’s find out more in today’s legal high reviews.

Who’s Dr Zee in the Legal Highs Market?

All that’s needed to develop a new psychoactive drug are a whiteboard and knowledge of chemistry, according to Dr. Zee.

He’s the Israeli chemist that kicked off the market of legal highs in the United Kingdom. He’s the most prolific inventor of Novel Psychoactive Substances. He’s the man behind mephedrone. If you could remember it, this substance had made media panic back in 2009.

NPS are chemical compounds also known as designer drugs. They can mimic the effects of real drugs, such as MDMA and cocaine.

Dr Zee uses his brain as a laboratory for testing his new designer drugs

He reveals testing his inventions and things it does to the brain, testing at different administration methods and dosages using his brain.

Mephedrone was first synthesized in 1929

The problem: It wasn’t widely known not until it was rediscovered back in 2003 when it was still legal in many countries.

Mephedrone was sold online in 2007

The popularity of the psychoactive designer drug was made available on the internet. However, law enforcement agencies had become aware of this NPS, so it was then reported to all over Europe

Its sale was most prevalent in the UK.

Again, Dr Zee rediscovered Mephedrone, also called M-cat or Meow Meow. This drug produces the same effects as that of ecstasy. In the UK alone, tons were sold each week, according to its inventor, before it was banned for being listed as a Class B drug.

Legal highs were popular and sold across the UK

These designer drugs were sold in many places, such as in head shops and online across the UK.

Home Office reported the demographics of legal highs users

According to one of its report, 244,000 people between 16 and 59 years old had consumed or used NPS in both Wales and England.

The rise in the number of the kinds of designer drugs

According to sources, there were 452 kinds of these psychedelic compounds in 2014 and were reported to the United Nations Drug Agency. The products go by different names, such as China White and Pink Panther.

Legal highs in its many forms in the UK

These colorful bags under different names give people different drug experiences. They’re also used in a wide range of forms – smokeable, snortable, and some were even injectable.

Whichever the method of consumption of choice, the packets of legal highs were with words, such as NOT for HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

However, this advice isn’t followed. To avoid being in trouble with the laws, many sellers and makers often marketed and advertised their products – as research chemicals, herbal incense or bath salts.

Legal highs were legal until they were banned

Drugs were banned one by one based on their chemical composition, according to the Misuse of Drugs Act that has been governing the drug policy of the UK since 1971.

Dr Zee and other inventors circumvent bans

Legal highs inventors get past the laws by adjusting the NPS formula to come up with a legal product containing chemicals that aren’t yet banned. So for the government, identifying and later banning new NPS drugs became a difficult task.

And the fall of legal highs – the blanket ban

As the authorities and government wanted to end the dominance of legal highs in the UK and the invention of new ones, the Psychoactive Substances Act was implemented on May 26, 2016. From that time, instead of banning a legal highs product one by one, they introduced the blanket ban on all psychoactive substances, except for tobacco and alcohol.