Aus - Federal Government announces tough new penalties in synthetic drugs blitz

[CLICKHEREx]

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/federal-government-announces-tough-new-penalties-in-synthetic-drugs-blitz/story-fnhocxo3-1226862129370

EXCLUSIVE YASMINE PHILLIPS

PerthNow

March 22, 2014 6:00PM

Preston Bridge, who died died in a fall from a Scarborough hotel balcony after taking synthetic LSD. Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIANS caught importing synthetic LSD will face at least two years in jail under tough new penalties aimed at stemming the deadly drug of choice for many teenagers.

Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan will today announce four substances marketed as synthetic LSD will be added to the list of drugs that attract serious penalties up to life imprisonment

Currently, the penalty for importing the substances often sold as Smiles, N-Bomb and Pandora, and usually bought over the internet is just a fine three times the value of the product.

The development comes a week after four students at the City Beach Residential College were taken to hospital after taking a substance believed to be synthetic LSD.

It has also been just over a year since 16-year-old Preston Bridge died in a fall from a Scarborough hotel balcony after taking synthetic LSD, understood to have been bought by another person from an international website that has since been shut down.

WA Police Minister Liza Harvey, who has been in discussions with Mr Keenan, said: Parents and families across WA want these drugs out of the community and out of our kids hands.

Prestons dad Rod Bridge welcomed the tougher penalties, saying synthetic drugs were more dangerous than illicit drugs because they were cheap and accessible to teens.

A tab of this stuff is $1.50 or $2 teenagers will buy it for $2 but they wont go and buy an ecstasy tablet for $50, he said. I think the penalty for synthetic drugs should be more than your illicit drugs like ecstasy and heroin to be honest with you. Its readily available, you can make it or you can go on the internet and buy it and do what you like with it. This is a killer.

The hallucinogenic drugs, called NBOMes, are intended to mimic the effects of LSD and can cause hallucinations, paranoia, cardiovascular complications, seizures, hyperthermia, organ failure and death.

Mr Keenan, a West Australian, said federal regulations will be amended within weeks to add four synthetic LSD substances to the list of substances that attract the same penalties as serious drug offences.

Synthetic drugs are deadly, and anyone bringing these types of drugs into the country are on notice; they face serious importation penalties, he said. Theres nothing synthetic about the damage these drugs cause.

Ms Harvey said: Stopping these drugs at our borders means WA Police dont have to stop them on our streets.

I welcome the decision by the Federal Government to introduce tough new laws to help us combat this scourge.

[Slocombe]

This is just ridiculous!

[rigger]

Yeah. These synthetic drugs which do not disclose substance or quantities are something to stay well away from. Pretty crazy how in trying to control peoples lives and question peoples judgment the government makes more danger for its citizens! That's off topic..

Synthetics may or may not be ok but if you have to try them only get a research chemical from company with a high trust rating from a reliable RC dedicated site. at least after a small trial dose you can have a fair idea of what your taking and any precautions that need to be taken.

The people that make these things called Bomb or something like that are worse than the people who manufacture real drugs! Why? because even they don't know what the result may be for many people. For anyone considering these as an alternative look up the effects of known well studied drugs and make your decision. Then compare it to synthetics where you are the lab rat. The result could be nothing to worry about/ death or anything in between.

For me I would only try kinds of things again if I was going to kill myself tomorrow and couldn't get anything else.

Edited March 23, 2014 by rigger

[migraineur]

"synthetic drugs were more dangerous than illicit drugs"

WTF?!?!?!

[-RC-]

So lets make synthetic LSD illegal because we made LSD illegal even though it has no physical side effects...

And as far as jumping of balconies, how many times have people done that shit when drunk?!

C'mon, the hypocrisy is such now that my being gets so excited I don't know if I'm going to get an erection or shit my pants

[nut]

Same I don't know if I should laugh. ,cry ,breathe or shit.the loss of logic in some of the op blows my tiny mind.....correct me if I'm wrong and this shat me the moment the media used the term synthetic LSD,is LSD not a synthetic??a molecule not found in nature??!!

Edited March 23, 2014 by nut

[rigger]

in my opinion they could be more dangerous than illicit drugs.

you can research illicit drugs for information such as interactions with medication or illness. Heaps of usable information as to effects and side effects. If you go to a hospital they may be able to treat an overdose if you know what you have taken.

If you take n-methyl-2aminoindane MDMAI for example there is hardly any info. This makes it hard to minimize risks.

Worse still something which is just called da bomb or something which doesn't even disclose what is in it!

Unless you really understand chemistry enough to inform yourself other wise I think synthetics pose a higher potential risk.

But, they are more dangerous because they ban every new chemical before we can get any data and then guys will just keep making another analog posing more danger than the last due to the same reason. So banning them isn't an adequate solution.

Edited March 23, 2014 by rigger

[ThunderIdeal]

migraneur, apparently they're marketing some of this stuff as 'synthetic lsd', i guess somebody thinks the original recipe grows on trees. they probably meant new drugs are more dangerous than the well-known drugs.... which is true, nbom is a fine example, it may mimic the effects of LSD but its deadly dose isn't insanely high like LSD (as far as i know LSD is only lethal if you take so much that you pop, or drown in it, same as water)

make LSD available with eductaional programs [/discussion]

nut, OP is just posting an article. if somebody posted that here as an original thought it's practically classify as trolling.

Edited March 23, 2014 by ThunderIdeal

[nut]

Yes I know,again I have not made my self clear ,I'm commenting on statement made in said quoted article..

Edited March 23, 2014 by nut

[nut]

Ok thunder sorry I get what your saying now

[timtam]

New synthetic weed back in vic adult shops next week i was told this from a reliable source.

Edited March 24, 2014 by timtam

[Raoul Duke]

Unfortunately people in positions of power continue to make the same mistakes. Blanket bans and tough penalties on substances, whether they be 'the original' or an analogue, doesn't stop people taking them. It just prevents reasonable discussion and awareness, even research into its properties from occurring openly. As a result people will get them from wherever they can and there is a risk, it would be much better if licenced businesses could make quality lsd and the analogues and be distributed, taxed and openly discussed in a healthy way to minimise risk. Similar to alcohol except rather than trying to shock people with TV ads into behaving a certain way, people can visit doctors or therapists/ neoshaman's etc. to obtain the most current information and work through any difficulties. Yes, similar program's do exist for alcohol but its capacity for addiction is much stronger than lsd or its analogues IMO.

LSD could be legal to consume under certain circumstance tomorrow and it would change little for the majority of the population. Many people simply don't want to try it regardless of its legal status. People who do want to try it would have access to a safer product in a safer environment and there would be fewer people in jail. Incarceration is expensive and for people who have done something as trivial as obtained a couple of tabs will come out worse people. I don't see how that benefits society at all.

Well that's enough of my rant, I just can't believe our system of governance can continue to make the same mistakes, if a person behaved that way they'd be declared insane (behaving the same way but expecting a different outcome over and over again).

[-RC-]

^ Precisely

[Anodyne]

Yeah, it's almost enough to make you wonder whether they might not even be "mistakes", but rather our government protecting their buddies in the legal drug trade... but no, that's just crazy conspiracy talk Anodyne! Get a grip, just go have a beer and an SSRI and stop thinking such silly things. Government and big pharma are our friends!

Rigger, you're confusing your terms. "Synthetic" just means that a drug has been, well... synthesised...as opposed to being extracted from a plant. It doesn't necessarily mean that that drug is a totally unresearched new chem. There are synthetics with piles of human data going back decades or more. Likewise, there are naturally-extracted compounds which were only discovered yesterday and haven't even been tested on rats. So I think when you say "synthetic", what you actually mean is "untested and possibly-mislabelled RC". Just because the media totally misuse the word, doesn't mean we have to as well.

[-YT-]

mmmm i dunno Anodyne it sounds like some sort crazy hippy consipracy theory type talk! but then again we have evidence that there are strong links between certain industries and government like mining etc so things like the mining tax which in the long run would have reaped huge benefits for the people of oz for things like education/health/maintaining public services like roadways etc but instead we give them subsidies and not even rein them in when they fail to meet the tax quota whilst the profits flow offshore its not so far to assume bodies like the TGA and there old mates in the pharma industry arent also given such lax treatment whilst pollies receive incentives/kickbacks

crazy talk i know

[doxneed2c-me]

My opinion is not based on this article but I am sorry but N-Benzyl derivatives of phenethylamines should have never surfaced...

Greed > Morality

People sell it as something else to try and profit more and they have killed people.

Also the media has hyped it up so much and made everyone aware of the fact they can find it on the internet.

Edited June 7, 2014 by doxneed2c-me