Welcome to the Caned In Totnes Guide to Legal Highs and Pep Pills.

 Legal highs - an introduction

In recent times the availability and popularity of legal ecstasy alternatives has become much more apparent, marketed as ‘legal highs’ or ‘herbal ecstasy’ it has fast become a growing market. This is in part due to the realisation that many of these products really do work and also due to the fact that the quality of ecstasy sold on the black market is getting increasingly worse, with many so-called e’s not even containing MDMA. This coupled with the added bonus that they are not illegal, so because there are no criminal consequences from their use, many recreational drug users are looking at the legal high market for their little pleasures in life.

At first, there was little interest from the killjoys in these herbal highs, partly because they were under the misapprehension that they did not do much, but sadly after the Magic Mushroom boom of 2004 and the increased availability of party pills, some of the killjoy politicians are now looking at introducing leglislation to make sure you cannot get legally high and to ensure the sale and supply of recreational drugs remains firmly in the hands of organised criminals (oh and the CIA).

Fortunately, at this point in time most of the legal ecstasy alternatives remain legal in most countries, though their legal future will always remain at risk as our politicians further expand the power of the State and attempt to restrict people’s right to alter their conscious state through the use of recreational plants or chemicals.

BZP and Party Pills from New Zealand

Some of the most popular legal ecstasy alternatives are party pills from New Zealand that contain piperazines, and a chemical known as BZP, usually together with a blend of vitamins and amino acids to help the body recover better, which is of course something you will never find in illegal drug products. These are sold with popular brand names such as PEP Pills, Orbit, Red Hearts, White Crosses, Jax, etc., and were developed in New Zealand where their Government decided not to ban them, but instead allow the legal sale to over 18s introducing a new category of Class D drug.

The New Zealand party pills soon became popular in the UK too, after the UK Home Office confirmed they were legal, but eventually it was all a bit too much for some politicians in the UK and moves are being made to ban BZP, because they do not want safe legal alternatives to be sold, as they know that the New World Order has a vested interest in the criminal drugs trade and the last thing they want to do is upset them. In 2007 the UK Medicines agency issued false advice claiming that BZP was in fact a worming medication for cows (as if you’d ever give a PEP Pill to a cow, though I suppose it would bring a whole new meaning to Mad Cow Disease) and therefore covered by the Medicines Act and illegal to sell in the UK. Unsurprisingly they have not issued one prosecution for the sale of BZP as they know they almost certainly wouldn’t win a prosecution, however, the mere threat of prosecution has understandably put off most retailers in the UK from selling them.

It is estimated that in the UK and New Zealand over 30 million BZP pills have been consumed and not one death has occurred that can be directly linked to BZP. The UK MHRA has used one or two isolated cases of BZP users being admitted to hospital, in their propaganda against PEP Pills, but what the MHRA always fail to mention that in these cases, the pills in question were purchased on the black market, at least three times the recommended dose had been consumed and they were eventually discharged from hospital in a perfectly healthy state.

Herbal Highs, ephedra and sida cordofolia

Another popular ingredient in legal ecstasy alternatives is Sida Cordofolia, which oddly enough is now banned in Holland, yet remains legal in the UK. This is a plant that contains naturally occurring ephedra that again is a very safe alternative to other illegal street drugs. It is usually sold in pill form mixed in conjunction with other well known ingredients, such as guarana, caffeine, etc., These products were originally introduced to the market by the Herbal High Co with popular products such as Road Runner, EX1 and Bliss Extra. Over the last 10 years there has been a huge increase in the number of companies selling legal highs, party due to the advent of the Internet.

As well as in pill form, some of these legal ecstasy alternatives are sold in liquid form in the form of a herbal high drink, such as Dr Hemp’s U4Ea, and Blue Lagoon, both of which are very powerful legal alternatives to ecstasy (MDMA).

Due to the recent Dutch ban on all forms of ephedrine, many of the Dutch products are finding alternative ingredients to use that work just as well as ephedrine. Dutch companies such as Sirius or Happy Caps have adapted to the market and now sell a range of ephedrine free legal highs.

 Ephedrine and BZP free legal highs, the next generation of party pills ...

Due to the fact our law-makers are always looking at ways to ban all forms of safe legal alternatives to ecstasy and even popular herbal medicines, the manufacturers have been forced to stay one step ahead of the killjoys. In response to the imminent BZP ban, manufacturers are finding ingredients that do not do much on their own, but in combination, produce effects similar to speed, BZP, or MDMA, however, as the ingredients are used in other legal everyday products, it makes it much harder, if not impossible, for the killjoys to ban them.

One example of a popular product introduced in response to the likelihood of a ban on BZP are X-pillz – these are completely free from piperzines or ephedrine, yet really do work, and because they contain only plant extracts not chemicals they don’t have the nasty comedown that is sometimes associated with their chemical counterparts and they are not difficult to sleep on when the effects wear off.

So however much our backward politicians try to ban all forms of legal highs - it looks like the legal high market is here to stay! Who knows, when this generation of stupid farts that currently run the UK Government are out of power, maybe one day we will even be able to buy legal and safe MDMA from legitimate traders? That is instead of the poor quality dangerous crap that is currently sold on the black market by organised criminal gangs who are also involved in other illegal activities such as people trafficking, heroin, sex slavery, armed robberies and all sorts of other nasty activities.

• Spiritual High
• PEP Pills
• Legal Highs and Party Pills
• Transform - how to regulate an emerging recreational drug not covered by existing legislation