Propaganda Finland: Legal internet drugs worry Police (Spice & kratom)

[Thirdedge]

Police say that new internationally trendy drugs have made their appearance in Finland, mainly through Internet sales.

Kratom and Spice are intoxicants that have become widely available online. Although police are concerned about the spread of these drugs, they are powerless to stop the trade, as neither is yet classed as a controlled substance.

Purchase and imports are still legal, but medical officials have warned buyers against trusting online information about the safety of designer drugs.

Producers of designer drugs keep one step ahead of the law. New mixtures appear constantly. Right now new favourites in this trade are Kratom, Spice and Blue Lotus.

All three are intoxicants that have become widely available online. Although police are concerned about the spread of these drugs, they are powerless to stop the trade, as they are not yet classed as controlled substances.

"We are familiar with a whole range of this kind of mysterious jumble of letters that have been ordered through the Internet and they always lead to a few poisonings every year," says Kalle Hoppu, Chief Physician and Director at Finland's Poison Information Centre.

The Poison Information Centre's telephone advisory service is often faced with the problem of a user mixing new drugs with alcohol or of older drugs being used in new ways.

Since many newer drugs are not classed as controlled substances, police cannot interfere with the online trade. The National Bureau of Investigation does report that it has received several requests to start formal investigations. For now, however, packages containing the new intoxicants can move freely in the post.

Kalle Hoppu warns against trusting online information about these new drugs.

"From time to time medical journals have reviewed the information online and found in the mix information that could be life threatening."

YLE

Source: http://www.yle.fi/news/id84961.html

Reputation Comments on this post:

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

[psyche]

This is very sad. SWIM himself ordered a dozen of Spice gold a month or two ago and sold them to couple of his friends, and now there are article's in many local newspapers and a national one about this herbal blend. Hope he hadn't much part of all this hype, since he thought this good herbal blend would take over the city if he let it on the loose. Anyway the situation doesn't look very good, as I understand that Spice hasn't got a lot if any puclib attention in another countries, and it was forbidden to deliver it to Finland since it might get banned.

[Triple7]

In Finland, the authorities ban chemicals and plants on the fly. SWIY living in Finland should be cautious. Anything picked up by customs may get confiscated even if it is legal. They may keep the merchandise till it is banned.

Also there are stories that the police in Finland has lately gotten a bit harsher and the reason is simply because some users behave in stupid manner they never should. SWIY could for example compare konemetsä last time and the year before.

[fnord]

Why are they calling kratom a designer drug??

[psyche]

^^ That's a thousand dollar question. Triple7 that's sadly very true. When SWIM made his very first order many years ago, which included along with others salvia and kratom, it happened to be caught by the customs. He was required to call there, and he asked if he could have the legal items in the order, they responded that none of the items were legal. That pisses me off. But on an another occasion he made an order which included LSA seeds, kratom, kava etc. He ordered it to his friend's address. The order got also caught in the customs, and a month or two later a friend of his amazingly got the package to himself. Altough it contained items that shouldn't be legal to import to Finland. It also went through customs laboratories. I think the difference was that the vendor of the package that got through didn't include any directions of use, and included plenty of warnings 'not for human consuption'.

[Alfa]

I have read that customs in Finland check the internet and are quite aware of legal highs.

[Thirdedge]

According to another forum: Spice, Kratom and Blue Lotus have just being made illegal in Finland.

I have not being able to find a link to verify this yet but it sounds bad . . . I will keep searching.

Can anyone form Finland verify this information?

[Alfa]

Originally Posted by Thirdedge

According to another forum: Spice, Kratom and Blue Lotus have just being made illegal in Finland.

I have not being able to find a link to verify this yet but it sounds bad . . . I will keep searching.

Can anyone form Finland verify this information?

I would like to see this information as well.

[Stephenwolf]

I love how Blue lotus and Kratom are " Designer Drugs". I might be wrong but isn't a designer drug a modified other drug, or a purposely created to produce w/e effects... A plant couldn't qualify... spice is even not quite a designer. This is ridiculous.

[psyche]

According to another forum: Spice, Kratom and Blue Lotus have just being made illegal in Finland.

What?! I haven't heard anything like that, but... maybe I could've missed it. Was there an article posted from a newspaper on this another forum? That's very bad news to start this day with if it's true...

[0utrider]

SWIM didnt even know that blue lotus is considered a drug and that it is so popular..

[psyche]

I don't think it's that popular even. SWIM says it's a nice, mild herb like valeriana with pronounced hypnotic effects, but banning it is very absurd. Sacrificing a plant because someone found a recipe of dozen of herbs to make effective substitute for cannabis remainds me of the current plastic bag -ban hazzle in the chicago.

[0utrider]

swim thinks swiy should invent a drug mix including for example sugar or salt.. i'd like to seem them banning that

[psyche]

^^ Reminds me of the simpsons episode, from 14th season if my memory serves me correctly, when they got this clever idea in springfield to ban sugar. It showed clearly how sugar had aquired a sinful status of a drug since it got banned. You couldn't help feeling a bit shame for their narc-behaviour when sugar was all of a sudden taken with highlight of the enjoyment of the forbidden taste and energizing effect.

But, on the topic. SWIM found on another forum a link to an article that said that kratom has been put on a list of medicinal substances, meaning that it can't be imported through post. Kratom can't be found on the official list in the internet though. This is very very sad. SWIM has had fantastic times with this herb in the past and has never had any concerns of it becoming unavailable anytime soon. No study whatsoever on this subject, just enough to announce to the public that we have found a legal drug that some people use as a replacement to illegal drugs, and WHAM, it's banned alright. In the end of the article the Chief supervisor of the airport customs notes that the kratom is familiar to them, and the packages have been mainly coming from Amsterdam Holland, but he states proudly that now it is over.

[psyche]

Here's a link to the finnish article in a local newspaper: http://www.karjalainen.fi/scripts/ed..._iddoc=4079565 It doesn't still seem to be in the official list on the internet, but I can't see any reason why this article would be a fraud.

I guess they have made a finnish translation for the word designer drug in the title. "Uutuus" is a finnish word that is a subject version of the adjective 'new', so it can be used to define something or all by itself to mean something new(e.g in commercials a product may be referred to as 'uutuus'). Sounds pretty lame in comparision since it doesn't imply anything about being designed, but rather is just a synonym to 'novelty'.

Basically the article says that you can't import kratom to Finland without a prescription. The national medical institution notes in their conclusion that "So we are talking about a substance that has powerful effect on the central nervous system. The herb has been used as a stimulant in a manner similar to the opium and cocaine." Then the article summarizes that "So according to the national medical institution we are talking about a preparation that 'fits the description of a drug' and thus can be likened to a prescription drug." Then there's a chapter about it's medicinal use in Thailand. At the end there is a sub-title "Now it ends!", and after that they've interviewed Veijo Mäntylä, a chief supervisor of customs at airport, who tells that they've familiar with Kratom, and packages have been mostly coming from Amsterdam, but now it ends!

[Alfa]

How about the spice gold ban?

[psyche]

I've read nothing about that, but someone told me they are about to make it illegal, but he coulnd't tell any sources or anything. And on the another forum a member told that customs seized his spice order. Maybe they made Blue Lotus illegal since it was listed on some newspaper article with spice and kratom. This all makes SWIM ask himself a question why didn't he stock up spice earlier. On the other hand who would've guessed this happened so fast, if it even happened yet. I'll post later when I learn something new.

[Triple7]

That is how it works in Finland.. on-the-fly to the medical list. As I understand, one isn't put into jail importing small amounts of "medicals" but instead one gets fined.

And that Konemetsä (a party) thing. Last time there were lot of cops arresting many ravers. The year before there were no cops arresting people, but there was a GHB-related death. They have been quite nice to ravers for a long time.

[psyche]

^^ In SWIMs experience of the past years, usually you don't even get any kind of sanction. The one time he had a fine of 120 euro it was a package containing mushrooms and salvia that customs caught. He has lost at least five packages to customs and never had any consequences before. On the news article I pasted, though, it says that you can get jailed up to one year for getting caught with kratom order, which is senseless and seems to be more like scare tactics. You propably would have to be shipping truck loads to get the maximum sentence.

[psyche]

I checked the list of the new classifications as a medicinal substance this year. There are only two. Another one of them is Kratom, so it definately is illegal to import. The other one of them is 1-benzylpiperazine, and it is oddly enough classified as a herbal remedy. So, Spice shouldn't be illegal unless there is piperazine in spice, which is unlikely but not impossible(SWIM has always felt cold and his blood circulation has become poor on spice). It kind of makes SWIM want to count 2+2 and draw a connection between the rumours that Spice has been made illegal, the fact that customs have started seizing spice packages and the fact that there are only two substances put on that list this year.

[Alfa]

There is no way that there is BZP in spice. Spice is no stimulant.