9/12/2023 0 Comments Disco biscuit weed![]() And follow us on Twitter ( to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.Disco Bizkit feminized seeds are super-hybrids that blend two Californian superstars. If you would like to write a blogpost for Views from the NHS frontline, read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. Many describe their use as unpredictable and often unpleasant, and for a small, but growing, number it ends in tragedy. They are misleading, in that being legal makes themseem safe, and their names promise escape and fantasy, that is, at best, illusion. But these new drugs are too brightly coloured and too available, and there are simply too many of them. Much of life is humdrum and unexciting, and people have sought escape and excitement in mind-altering drugs for millennia. Perhaps there has always been a tawdry glamour about drug use, reflected in what they are called. Literally within hours of the temporary ban we were told to look out for use of MPA, an alternative legal high – ironically known as Mind Melt. By the time any permanent ban is imposed, Burst and its consequences will have melted from our minds because we’ll be dealing with a new alternative. Which you’d think would be a good thing, were it not for all the busily whirring chemistry sets almost certainly churning out slightly altered, and therefore not illegal, replacements. Burst, and some of its equally unpleasant relations have recently been temporarily banned. It is also being injected, which carries the consequent risk of infection with hepatitis C or HIV, or necrotizing fasciitis (more sensationally known as flesh-eating syndrome). And, like their illegal counterparts, they can cause great damage to mental and physical health.įor example, Burst, also known as ethylphenidate, has precipitated outbreaks of aggressive and psychotic behaviour in users. They are not regulated, and are commonly sold as bath salts or plant food, with the advice – or barefaced lie, really – that they are “not meant for human consumption”. These drugs are very cleverly manipulated to mimic the effects of well-established illegal substances, such as cocaine, amphetamines, psychedelics and cannabis. This, combined with their oddly legal (or just not illegal yet) status, can lull the curious into a false sense of security. You could imagine school children exchanging them in the playground. The packaging is usually gaudy it’s hard to believe that such crass looking products could be dangerous. Others have a cheery ring – Jumping Beans, Disco Biscuits and, of course, Spice. There is a sordid glamour about names like Annihilation, Dust Till Dawn, Exodus, Clockwork Orange, Fury and Fusion. This little fantasy is probably exactly what the names supposed to achieve, through their clever marketing. I can’t help imagining both the drugs and the names are being dreamed up by someone in a cavern, with bubbling test tubes and lots of badly chalked symbols. Think Dungeons and Dragons crossed with Breaking Bad. The names themselves are like something out of a bad sci-fi movie – you couldn’t make them up. I say “thinks” because what’s written on the colourful packaging isn’t always what’s contained within, adding to the risks involved. ![]() Having somehow established the use of NPSs, the next hurdle is to find out which of the literally countless substances available the patient thinks they’ve consumed. We are being encouraged to use the term NPS, a snappy abbreviation, and, for the sake of clarity, I am sticking to it. Yet the term “club drugs” is misleading too, because consumption of them is certainly not confined to clubs. The term is also rendered somewhat meaningless once a drug is proclaimed illegal, as happened recently to a local favourite known as Burst.ĭesigner drugs? Bath salts? Synthetic cathinones? There’s a very interesting report about club drugs by the psychiatrist Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, which acknowledges some of the difficulties around nomenclature, and has the advantage of including those on either side of the legal divide. The alternative name, legal highs, is more likely to yield useful results but covers a multitude of sins. This description is entirely useless when asking someone about their history of drug use. But recently things have become a lot more complicated, largely due to the advent of a pernicious collection of chemicals known as novel psychoactive substances. Now I know my opioids pretty well, and I’m quite comfortable with a wide range of alcoholic beverages.
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