secret ingredients in "legal highs"

[Benga]

Hello all

This thread was posted in the some for all forum as it focuses on one particular issue of the “legal highs” grey market area, which has a quite broad spectrum.

What swim’s refering to by the term of “legal highs” are not plants, ethnos, R.C.’s and substances which are still legal / unclassified, but actual *commercial preparations*, marketed blends and mixes sold as such, as potential substitutes for various illegal substances.
Some of these products are marketed for human consumption, others are not, thinly disguised as other products such as incense etc…

The main categories these products fall into are euphoriant-relaxants (focusing on cannabis and more rarely opiod effects mimicry) and stimulants-euphoriants ( focusing on a recreation of the effects of amphetamines, cocaine, and a very special mention to a widespread and lucrative ideal of MDMA effect imitations) but also erotic stimulants and psychedelics.
Some of these commercial mixes sometimes claim to be able to give a little of both, often claiming to render the effect of substance combinations, mimicking candyflipping, hippyflipping etc, MDMA like plus a little amphetamine like, amphetamine like + a little psychedelia, a relaxant with a little aphrodisiac twist etc etc…this plays a great role in the marketing of these products.

The market of these products is dominated by herbal / plant mix based products, but also reaches elsewhere to R.C. based preparations, and other chemicals substances such as piperazine blends, D.X.M. etc…


The issue swim would like to bring to attention is that a lot of these products, existing in a fragile grey area of legality, have deliberately chosen to keep part of their ingredients a “secret”.
Which implies that users might be given hints, and partial indication as to what they're taking but, not the full picture. From a harm reduction and ethical point of view, we have to agree that this isn’t great, as most of us would concord that we strive for responsible use and *want* to know what we might be taking, "know your substance"... Knowledge is one of the most effective harm reduction tools, and here this most crucial element is virtualy denied, taken away from us.

The consensus on this situation seems to be that these “secret ingredients” are less problematic in herbal mixes, such as in the NXT Phase range, or the Bionix range, but more disturbing when it comes to the Neorganics range of R.C. based analogues, P.E.P. or London Underground piperazine blends not to mention the odd D.X.M. combinations.
The choice of a position towards such products is also due to the nature of the company itself, implying that a Dutch company with a good responsible background in psychoactives, but trying to protect their legality by leaving a few things out will be more respectable, and appear more ethical, trustworthy, than say a New Zealand or Israeli company trying to cash in on a legal loophole in anyway they can, and not worry too much about safety of the users.
“Herbal” itself is also seen as less potentially dangerous than chemical based, though this can be disputed, as some natural products can be as equally dangerous as properly weighed out extracted chemicals.
Yet with secret ingredients, weights and proportions of chemicals, or potency / concentration of extracts,are rarely given, another problem for dosing issues….
But all of this doesn’t change the fact that legal high products containing secret ingredients, imply that the user is still ingesting something without knowing what it is, pretty much as one would when taking street-drugs, and this remains problematic, in swim's point of view, not something desirable, ethical or safe.
Also not being able to specifiy what one has taken, in case of an emergency (wether dosage related, allergy related, combination related or anything else) will be a problem in E.R....or cause complications, interaction with medication, false positives in cases of drug-testing...
something best avoided, for many reasons.

The reasons behind these "secret ingredients" are numerous : legal questions, staying on the safe side of the law, avoiding bringing attention to a relatively unknown psychoactive and eventually getting it banned, commercial questions such as not getting a product copied too easily, and cashing in on the "mystery effect" which can potentially attract some gullible consumers etc...
The fact that these types of practices exists in the food industry for instance, doesn’t make it more acceptable or less problematic. Food products are not in the same league as psychoactives, the consequences of use are not the same, nor are the motivations which are clearly commercial / copyright based in the case of food products ( with the one notable exception of Coca Cola’s secret vegetable flavoring ingredient, not much of a secret, but there is a bit of an international legality issue regarding coca leaves). And if there might be a serious health issue, such as allergies, the food regulation administrations force the company to state this.

In swim’s view, this doesn’t make it ok to transfer these practices to psychoactive substances, due to the very nature of psychoactives and of their psychophysiological action : it's of basic importance to know what the monkeys are really being fed. And if swim understands what might be the implications and causes of this situation, it is still very bothering to him.
Which is why swim brought this up, and wanted to share a few views with others on this subject. What’s swiy’s stand on this issue ?Have some of these companies have ever responded positively to information requests, or is the only way of having a clear picture is having the products lab analysed, at an individual’s initiative or even by governmental authorities should something happen involving these products ( customs, death or physical problem, confiscation etc).
Also how, on what basis, do potential users decide to choose or avoid use of a particular psychoactive product with a secret active ingredient ? Is it just a herbal vs chemical-issue ? trust in the company and its background ? User feedback ?

take care

b

Reputation Comments on this post:

	very good topic
	Excellent post!
	good work benga
	interesting post. swim has taken a risk with neorganics and been happy with the results, but for the most part I definit...
	Good Post. I think is a typo in this sentence toward the bottom: "The fact that these types of practices exists in...
	very good post man. very intruiging topic
	excellent topic - thanks for bringing it up & to the attention of the masses