Young people don’t just say no. They say yes, they say yes many times, and as time goes on, they have more and more things to say yes to. We must accept the enormous demand for drugs.
Every time we ban one, chemists get around it. Some people think that legalizing drugs is safe, which of course is completely wrong.
While previous generations had access to heroin, cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and a handful of other traditional drugs, young people across the UK now have dozens of other new drugs to choose from. Many young people are now using synthetic drugs formulated by clandestine chemists to circumvent UK drug laws. They are legal to buy because they are sold as research chemicals and not intended for human consumption.
New drugs are being synthesized in India and China and hitting the market faster than governments can ban them. They all have weird chemical names and are very cheap. One of the most wanted drugs is methylphenidate – a cheap legal stimulant sold online as a research chemical. Fifty grams cost around £320…seventy jars.
The long-term effects and health risks of using these research chemicals are completely unknown, but headquarter stores selling research chemicals and legal highs have sprung up on Britain’s high streets. Before researching chemicals became big business, the only people who knew about it were psychologists — people who tried new drugs and shared their thoughts online.
Tons of legal drugs are sent through the mail every year. 40,000 parcels pass through the international mail hub in Coventry every hour. Some of the suspicious packages were kept in an inspection room for testing, and they almost always tested positive for legal doping.
Directed by three-time BAFTA winner Dan Reed, this riveting empirical documentary follows a journey into a dark world where undercover chemists are developing new drugs faster than governments can legislate them out be quick.
