Party Vibe

@tealeaf 395980 wrote:

i hope this doesn’t restrict traditionally-used plants and herbs as well as chemicals…i’d be very disappointed if kratom got banned for example.

if they aren’t supplied in a ready processed form that encourages binge use that would be less likely.

to be fair the previous UK government, whether by accident or design, did cut people a lot of slack. They could have put in the “catch all” law through a lot earlier (for instance in the mid 2000s when there was a resurgence in party drugs use), other EU nations have done so.

Cathinones only got restricted after the NHS and Police came up with real case reports of problematic use. Whilst the risk of fatalities was exaggerated (more by the media than the authorities!), chronic use does create a variety of physical and mental health problems which were causing a burden to wider society.

@tealeaf 395985 wrote:

the amount of non-typical drug-users who descended into stereotypical crystal-meth-esque addicts and dropped out of university, lost jobs and fucked over their friends was already getting out of hand.

Exactly the same (albeit on a smaller scale) happened in 1991-1995 with the first pills. due to the price first it hit the middle class suburban families – and for those with less money they simply robbed whatever wasn’t nailed down to fund their partying

I remember these days myself which is why I am hesitant to look upon the “old skool” rave days with the rose-tinted specs some others seem to wear.. bear in mind also the age of todays politicians, my generation is now in power and some won’t forgive or forget what happened in the 90s!

@gregzy 396883 wrote:

the only thing vendors can do is just keep the active chemical in their products secret so that it takes a little longer for the law to catch up

the law can catch up immediately by making a covert test purchase and sending it to the national forensic science services or any other accredited testing facilitiy . This is exactly what SCDEA did (even before England’s authorities to expose the fact that many current drugs by post companies are/were selling class B substances.

journalists or anyone else can also send stuff away to be tested as a “concerned citizen” and even if it were to be illegal can escape a potential posession charge under common law provided they instruct the lab to have it disposed of in a secure manner.

the overall intent of this law would be to close the loophole of selling these substances as “plant food” or “household cleaners” or anything else. As similar laws already exist in other European countries which are claimed to have better human rights records and more socially liberal attitudes even than the UK (such as Denmark) unfortunately the days of obtaining RC’s with impunity will be over.