European perspective on legal highs: 2010 EMCDDA report

Today (10/11/2010) the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has published its annual report on the state of the drugs problems in Europe. Apart from identifying the trends of trafficking and use for widely known drugs like cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and cannabis, EMCDDA dedicate a considerable attention to the question of synthetic cannabis and other “legal highs”. According to the EMCDDA these new compounds provoke a substantial issue for the EU Member States control systems, mainly due to the steady growth in the number of substances identified (from 13 in 2008 to 31 in 2010 so far).

The term “legal highs” refers to a broad number of substances “from herbal mixtures to synthetic or ‘designer’ drugs and ‘part y pills’, which are used in different ways (smoked, snorted, ingested)”. On most occasions “legal highs” are distributed through the internet. However there are specific “smart shops” which can also supply these substances. EMCDDA points out that the market of “legal highs” is highly dynamic and stimulated by the sophisticated marketing strategies. Interestingly, according to the information provided by the Monitoring Centre, “legal highs” often are labeled incorrectly in order to deceive controls and hide the trace amounts of illegal substances contained.

A new trend indicated in this year’s report is the growing popularity of synthetic cathinones (especially mephedrone) which is structurally related to amphetamine.  EMCDDA claims, that this issue has been particularly visible in the United Kingdom due to the media attention paid in that country. Nevertheless the Monitoring Centre reports that the significant amounts of this substance have also been confiscated in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Although so far the European Union has not come up with a harmonized legislation for all EU Members touching this issue, some Member States have already introduced measures to control mephedrone spread on the market.

EMCDDA observes, that “mephedrone is readily available on the Internet, where it may be sold as a legal alternative to cocaine or ecstasy”. Marketing strategies tend to sell it directly under the name of “legal highs” but the practice of selling it “undercover is also quite popular. Report provides examples of mephedrone being sold as a ‘research chemical’, ‘bath salts’, ‘for botanical research’, ‘plant food’ or ‘plant feeder’. In March 2010, this substance was available through at least 77 English websites. Although initially ban resulted in the decrease of websites selling mephedrone, the actual supply of the drug did not diminish at all. Suppliers on this occasion decided to refer to selling mephedrone under the general name of “legal highs”, Ivory Wave or NRG-1 not informing the customer that in fact they are buying an illegal drug. 

According to data presented in the report, EMCDDA has identified 170 online drug shops throughout the world offering legal highs, hallucinogenic mushrooms or both. This year number is almost six times larger then four years ago when EMCDDA identified “only” 39 of vendors. Among the European countries the biggest number of online shops is registered in the Netherlands (38), followed by the United Kingdom and Germany (20). In next nine EU states (Poland, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Italy and Sweden), EMCDDA identified between 1 to 5 online shops

Last question addressed by the report considers the phenomena of synthetic cannabis, popularly called “spices”. The most popular media for selling this kind of product is again internet. Interestingly, “in 2008, forensic chemists discovered that it is not the harmless herbal product that it claims to be”. The results showed that “spices” contain synthetic psychoactive substances imitating the effect of THC in cannabis. Because of the response by the state legislative regulations, synthetic cannabis has largely diversified in packaging and content since 2009.  The most problematic question associated with this sort of synthetic drugs is the limited knowledge on them. As pointed out “almost nothing is known about the pharmacology, toxicology and safety profiles of these compounds in humans. The type and amount of added synthetic cannabinoids may also vary considerably, and some of these compounds may be highly active at very small doses”.  So far Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Romania, Sweden and United Kingdom banned this sort of substances. These legal regulations has resulted in the sharp decrease in the number of shops offering “spices” from 55 in 2009 to 21 in 2010.

EMCDDA 2010 report proves that the usage of “legal highs” becomes an important issue for the drug controlling policies. The surveys in Poland and Germany show that between 3% and 6% of teenagers in the age between 15 and 18 have tried this kind of substance.  As observed, the situation at the moment is quite difficult to handle due to high diversification and constant modification of the chemical formulas in order to overcome legal barriers. Additionally, taking into account the present highly inefficient global drug policy it is disputable if the policy controls that are already or soon will be introduced will halt the spread of the synthetic cannabis and other “legal highs”.

Full report available on:  http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/annual-report/2010