Synthetic cannabis is a killer

Has the evolution of human society reached the stage where we are so stupidly dependent on artificial stimulants to make us feel good that we are happy to let people regularly kill themselves in the process?

Humans have always indulged in certain toxic food and drink to enjoy the temporary enjoyable effects. From the first discovery that fermented fruit and some hallucinogenic plants made our ancestors feel good, humans have explored and invented new and innovative ways of inducing that relaxed and pleasurable euphoria.

For most of the following several hundred thousand years, they regularly indulged in these things, sometimes every few days but mostly on special occasions or when work and other demands on their time had been dealt with. For most of that time, most people drank alcohol in its many forms, but others chewed toxic plants or smoked various dried toxic plants.

From very early times, those who overindulged in these things were not well regarded by their peers. Those people, particularly men, who drank sometimes to excess and smoked tobacco were regarded as normal, but chain smokers and alcoholics were often seen as weak. This was particularly so before the real power of addiction was understood.

In recent times we have reached the stage where almost every social event or gathering of people is not complete without alcohol or other stimulants, including cannabis and more dangerous drugs, to the point where it has become the new normal.

Many of the people who use, or misuse, these substances do so on a daily basis or as often as their finances allow and they are continually exploring new and often more hazardous stimulants.

Supplying the demand for these substances has given rise to major world alcohol and tobacco industries, which are heavily regulated, supposedly for public health reasons, and equally heavily taxed for public finance reasons. While many nations are now trying to bring an end to the tobacco industry, the unregulated, untaxed and illegal industries which have evolved to supply other substances bring mayhem and tragedy to our communities.

Just last week, police reported that seven people in a single month had died after using synthetic cannabis in Auckland. Ambulance staff treat about 20 users a day suffering from lifethreatening effects from the illegal drug.

The deaths have brought yet another public warning about synthetic cannabis, this time from the Chief Coroner, but no one expects much to change. It’s pretty much the norm for someone to die smoking synthetic cannabis these days … unless it’s someone we know.

Unbelievably, some of these people will buy and smoke almost anything with little or no knowledge of what it is or what the effects will be. Ask them to drink the water from a toilet bowl or the gutter and see what their reaction is. But synthetic cannabis is many times more dangerous.

Those who manufacture and sell these substances have no interest in the health of their customers and no remorse for the damage they cause. Like rats in the sewer, they gnaw away at the fabric of society, taking what they want and leaving filth behind them.

Just a year ago, one of these manufacturers, known as the Godfather of New Zealand’s legal high industry, Matt Bowden, left the country leaving unknown numbers of damaged clients and debts of around $3.5 million.

The so-called legal high trade finally came to an end in 2013 with the Psychoactive Substances Act, which requires manufacturers and retailers to prove their products are safe. The testing regime was very expensive and public outrage prevented the use of animal testing.

The success of that legislation was only temporary, as there are still those who demand genuine cannabis to be legalised with all manner of dubious facts presented as justification. The Government has recently relaxed the restrictions on the importation of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals under prescription, but that is still not enough for those who clamour for the right to poison themselves and others with another unnecessary toxic stimulant.

Unless we change the mindset of those who assume that artificial stimulants are the only way to enjoy life, we can expect more people to die using them and more people prepared to supply them.

Alcohol in moderation is probably harmless, tobacco in any quantity is potentially lethal, but artificial cannabis and other hard drugs are a serious threat to the lives of those who are foolish enough to try them.

Those who supply them are as dangerous as paedophiles in a kindergarten and should be treated as such.

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