The Legal High – Smoking Reviews & Legal Highs

What became of BZP products?

BZP products were all the rage in the UK for several months. The most popular brands included Funk Pills, London Underground and PEP Pills. It started in New Zealand where manufacturing party pills containing the synthetic ingredient BZP was legal and safe. Quickly, news of this latest legal high spread to the UK and Europe and headshops began to supply their customers with BZP products. More…Many happy shoppers enjoyed their weekends that little bit more, buying legal, clean products over the counter, without fear of being branded criminals and with the ability to read the exact contents of their chosen pills.

BZP party pills were sold under the banner of “Drug Harm Minimisation Solutions”. The idea was to allow people to make informed decisions about what they were taking, within the confines of the law and with straightforward dosage instructions and warnings for all users. Those who tried them welcomed this change. No longer did they have to conceal their recreational choices and, with open discussion of ingredients and effects, many users felt that this new wave of legal highs dispelled the negative stigma attached to the party scene.

The fact is, if you buy illegal drugs, you are buying into a massive criminal world, associated with all manner of things that your average night-clubber wouldn’t know or want to know about. And it’s not a nice feeling for people who are otherwise considered no danger to others to be sneaking around, carrying dodgy substances and worrying they might get caught for wanting to boost their evening and experiment with their own minds. The concept of separating the party scene from the criminal scene is appealing on many levels. The harmfulness of drugs is mainly due to their being forced underground and therefore anyone wishing to try out a substance is automatically introduced to criminality. Also, it will greatly undermine the illegal market for drugs if people can buy them above board. Add the fact that legal drugs could mean better education for youngsters and you’ve got a pretty good case for legal highs. For example, some parents may be reluctant to tell their children that they have experimented with drugs because they don’t want to set a bad example. But if the drugs they have tried are legal, at least they won’t be condoning crime. And let’s face it, most kids will try drugs at some stage, so surely it’s better to be able to talk about then.

Back to BZP:

Unfortunately, when the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) heard about the introduction of BZP to the legal highs market, they ruled that no-one could manufacture BZP in the UK without a license. Some grey area is left regarding the selling of BZP in the UK that has been manufactured elsewhere. But on the whole, BZP is no longer available to buy here.

Of course, the MHRA has a job to do and it doesn’t involve promoting recreational drug use. In that respect, one can’t argue over their decision. However, this issue does highlight the problem of illegal drug classification in the UK. More and more, people are forming the opinion that if drugs were legalised, at least users would be able to take them safely, without contributing to a world of organised crime and with plenty of information to educate themselves. Human beings are naturally curious as to how they can alter their minds and see things from different perspectives. Experimenting with drugs will never cease. Yes, there will always be a minority of people who abuse their availability due to personal problems or addictive dispositions. That will never change either. At least we can give those who only wish to explore the parameters of their own minds the opportunity to do so with the freedom of knowledge and legality.

Thankfully, for those who are lamenting the departure of BZP from the UK market, there are now many legal alternatives with very favourable reports from users. Ingredients vary. Some are synthetic and some are completely herbal. Buyers are happy once again to be able to buy over the counter, and on the right side of the law.

Related Articles:

Click on these links to view BZP products before they were removed from the UK market. Product ingredients also have links to enable the reader to further their personal research.

Funk Pills
London Underground
PEP Pills

Party Pills – An anti-legal highs article by the National Collaborating Centre for Drug Prevention.

BZP & TFMPP Summary – How these ingredients work and what effects they have.

Filed under: Legal Highs News on February 6th, 2008