New threat rising !

It took the death of a usually studious young man to focus the nation's attention on a new twist in the drug wars.   The drugs being sold on the streets of Australian cities are now not the real thing !    In the past, Heroin and Cocaine slipped past customs and made a lot of money for their importers.   Marijuana was usually a local crop, grown hydroponically or on a patch deep in the woods.   Quality varied, depending on how the drugs were " cut " ,  but the " high " was fairly predictable.

A lot of people from all social strata's have been tempted by the huge profits coming from supplying the market for illicit drugs.   There is certainly a risk of  long term in prison if the supplier gets caught, but balanced against the millions that can quickly flow, many people think the odds are favourable.

Now, new thinking is being applied.   Smart minds have worked out that this risk can be avoided - but the same profits will quickly flow - if the drugs they produce can be tweaked to fall outside the legal definition needed to base a successful prosecution.

We now have synthetic adaptions being offered on the Internet and delivered through the postal system.  Each of these is not technically an illegal substance, because the formulae has been slightly altered from the legal definition used by the justice system.  

It becomes a " cat and mouse " game.   The legal definition moves to outlaw a new drug combination and immediately chemists in the supply chain make a small modification to change the mix and avoid the new offering falling into illegal status.

The danger is that these modifications are untested and even the chemists involved have no idea what side effects may result.   In the case causing headlines, a seventeen year old swallowed what purported to be a " LSD tablet " and this caused a mental distortion that convinced him that he could fly.   The power of this drug mix was so great that he willingly launched from a third floor balcony - and died instantly from the fall.

At this point, the supply seems to be coming from China and New Zealand, but it seems inevitable that local producers will quickly emerge.   A whole new way of thinking has evolved in the drug culture - and if we are to mount a defence we will need to apply a similar new way of thinking to the legal definitions needed to prosecute synthetic drugs that do not meet the present legal definitions.

Unfortunately, countering this new menace will probably involve intrusions into civil liberties and it is essential that whatever plans evolve have the full support of all the states and territories, together with the Commonwealth.

No country has yet succeeded in solving it's drug problems and the " law of supply and demand "  is unequivocal.     As long as strong demand exists, there will be those who for profit take whatever risks are necessary to meet that demand.

The need to at least slow this death trade means that the rule book must have the same degree of innovation !