A year after they arrived in Hungary with a bang, so-called “designer drugs” are now a staple of life in some of the country’s schools. According to a survey by Pécs’ Fact Institute, there are now eight different types of such drugs on the local market, including several based on the best-known variant, mephedrone, which was banned on January 1. They are particular popular in vocational schools in the country’s south, where students use them not only at parties but during school hours.
Researchers said they could not estimate the total number of users. But their data showed that not only has a significant percentage of secondary school students taken up the designer drug fashion, some in the final year of elementary school – generally, 14-years-olds – are already enthusiastic users. Which is more than a bit disturbing when combined with the finding that the drugs are so “popular” that young female users are known to pay for them with sex. Ick. [Index.hu]
Biochemistry and technology have evolved to the point where “drug designers” could always stay one step ahead of the law. In the states, they are synthesising THC mutant compounds (like JWH), and the buzz is that thousands of variants are possible, which would pack the same effect, but which would be a technically different (and hence legal) chemical. Pass a new law against each variation, and the lab wizards just pass a new substance.