At least 25 people died and 700 people hospitalized at the beginning of October, after consuming “Spice”, a synthetic cannabis.
Haro on synthetic drugs in Russia. At least 25 people lost their lives in early October after smoking ‘Spice’, a synthetic cannabis that also sent 700 people to hospital at the same time. This drug is akin to a cheap version of cannabis, sold over the Internet.
As specified the Washington post, this drug consists of substitutes for cannabis, but also chemicals. After being smoked, this product can “easily cause poisoning or respiratory distress”. This drug is very highly addictive and its effects particularly powerful. “After a period of euphoria, I fell into a wave of paranoia,” says a former consumer on the chain RT (in English).
In any case, the government seems to be reacting firmly after the extensive media coverage the product has received and its consequences for Russian society in recent weeks: the Russian drug control service has arrested 90 suspects this year, in connection with of an increasingly intense fight against the sale of this drug. Sellers face up to eight years in prison if its consumption results in the death of an individual, or if its distribution is managed by an organization.
The race against the ban
The product is in any case not new since press articles from 2009 in theExpress and Release already mentioned by explaining that the European health authorities were on alert.
While it has not been completely clear why this drug has resulted in so many deaths recently, one can think that it is a change of active principle that could be the cause. There is, in fact, a real race to ban between the producers and the legislator. When the latter bans a psychotropic substance, the manufacturers of Spice and other synthetic drugs sold on the Internet change the ingredients, replacing a substance just banned with one that is not yet banned. However, certain synthetic cannabinoids “can have much more powerful effects than others”, explained Release in 2009. When we add to that the fact that the contents of active products can vary according to the sachet from 1 to 10, we see here that there are all the bases to create a health accident.
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