Uk to outlaw laughing gas and "legal" highs

[Anchor Moy]

More from the no fun brigade. No more laughing, and legal highs will become illegal to sell but not to possess or consume. Apparently the authorities can't be bothered to make a list of which "legal" drugs are "illegal", (because there are too many), so I guess that includes anything that makes you high, or

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... rous-oxide

The sale of laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, the second most popular recreational drug in Britain, is to be banned in the government’s clampdown on legal highs, Home Office ministers have announced.

The bill implementing the blanket ban on legal highs, to be published on Friday by the home secretary, Theresa May, will make clear that it extends to ‘hippy crack’, as the tabloids have dubbed nitrous oxide for human use.

The use of laughing gas as a recreational drug has increased rapidly in recent years, with more than 400,000 16- to 24-year-olds reporting taking it in the past year.

Nearly all inhaled the gas from a balloon to experience a short period of euphoria. It has been particularly popular at summer music festivals, with more than two tonnes of used cannisters picked up at Glastonbury last summer. Although many festivals have a policy of “no legal highs”, the sale of gas-filled balloons appears to be widely tolerated.

The legislation, being published on Friday, will make it illegal to produce, distribute, sell or supply “new psychoactive substances” in Britain, whether over the internet or through a high street ‘head shop’. It will not, however, make simple possession of legal highs a criminal offence.

[vladimir]

[General Mackevili]

You can't even get laughing gas at the bars in Sihanoukville any longer.

[wackyjacky]

The UK should be ready for the law of unintended consequences to kick in:www.localmemphis.com/story/d/story/woma ... _vZ356cQWQ

[Samouth]

you still can get it at many bars in PP. i just got it the other day.

[Sailorman]

The do nothing police in Snookyville banned the beach bars from having N20. Having been drug tested in the US by the US government (job related) for over 20 years, N20 was my recreation of choice. The useless Snooky police can't stop/won't stop the crazy driving and carnage on the streets, but they sure can ban a harmless gas. (they probably weren't making any money from it and/or were pushed by some self righteous useless NGO.)

[frank lee bent]

I notice a very startling change in traffic here in SV.
People are stopping for the traffic lights mostly.

[BOFH]

Finland has since long had a whitelist approach to narcotics legislation. Some of you laugh at the idea, but you have to understand how chemistry works. Before they banned MDMA Alex Shulgin synthesized 2c-b and it was immediately available as a substitute. The governments followed suit and banned 2c-b, but Shulgin also synthesized 2c-e, 2c-c and 2c-i. Once they were also banned it did not take long for n-ethyl or 4/5-meo combined molecules to appear. For example, PCP was criminalized by a blacklist approach in many countries, but soon enough 4-meo-pcp was available, and the same with n-ethyl-2c-b. It only takes a chemist an alternation in the synthesis to bypass the law. For the law to change, well, you know the rest. Thus, the whitelist approach of narcotics is by far the most effective one. (Please, don't say it out loud, it may inspire other countries.)

We have seen history repeat itself in many blacklist approach legislations. Take the most recent cat and rat race between synthetic cannabinoid producers and the law makers. THC and CBD was regulated for decades. Many other cannabinoids against the CB1 and CB2 receptors were, frankly, not. JWH-007, JWH-015, JWH-018, JWH-019, JWH-30, JWH-047, JWH-048, JWH-51, JWH-057, JWH-073, well, you see where I'm going with this. A pretty decent research group at Clemson University synthesized over 450 cannabinoids; all of them legal in blacklist legislation regulated markets where THC and CBD was already illegal. Quickly, this new synthetic cannabis hit the market. One cannabinoid was packaged and shipped. One by one, they would of course become illegal. When they became illegal, another cannabinoid was packaged and shipped. Legally. Thus the entire purpose of narcotics control had been (dangerously) rendered useless. And people are still selling different varities of Clemson's offspring under the branding "Spice".

Putting research chemicals in one's body comes with increased risk. If there is to be narcotics legislation then, due to the obvious risks involved (see e.g. the amputation cases LSD research chemical substitute bromo-dragonfly brought), whitelisting substances, as Finland has done for years and apparently England does now too, is the most sensible approach. Naturally, every market regulates itself, including the black market. The direct consequence of criminalizing RCs is that people will return to traditional school book drugs that are far more harmless in comparasion. The market demand will grow for cannabis, MDMA, amphetamines and so on, "real" drugs, because why bother taking risks with untested substances when the legal consequences are the same as for using well tested and known substances that have been around for years?

"Laughing gas", in other words nitrious oxide, they simply cannot criminalize. There is no industrial equivalent. Laughing gas may become illegal to sell over the counter in bars. Yet, those spray can whipped cream tubes still contain them. Patrons will be available 100% for the simple reason that it's used partially in cooking. Nitrious oxide is no laughing matter, all attempts of criminalizing or regulating it will fail.

[wackyjacky]

"Mostly", jeez I wouldn't go that far. I'll give you 'sometimes', which is a big improvement IMO.

[Jamie_Lambo]

I notice a very startling change in traffic here in SV.
People are stopping for the traffic lights mostly.

yes and so many more are wearing helmets as well, noticed them stopping more too, have noticed the police cracking down on everyone including the locals