Designer Drugs: A New Trend But Harmful And Difficult To Ban
Your favorite party location or the festival you went to last week, are all places where drug use is
inevitable. With drug use of 19% of all festival goers, it is not surprising if you have ever come into
contact with drugs (Castagna, 2022). Previously, the most famous party drugs were XTC, speed, coke
and GHB, but nowadays there are new types of drugs in circulation: designer drugs. These are
synthetic analogues of legally restricted or prohibited drugs, devised to circumvent drug laws. The
term 'designer' is used because the makers slightly modify the molecular structure of an existing drug
and use it to ‘design’ a new drug. As designer drugs are introduced, and more and more teenagers
fail to understand the risks involved, addiction creeps in with all its consequences. This essay begins
by describing why designer drugs escape criminality. It then addresses the significant risks of
consuming designer drugs. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on
people.
Like some animals redistribute their pigment to get a different color, designers rearrange molecules
to design a different drug. Designer drugs can be purchased legally due to the fact that the chemical
structure is not yet covered in the existing drug laws. Manufacturers are able to make sure people
test negative for a drug test due to the change in the composition of the synthetic drug. The new
chemical composition of the drug means that there is no criminal liability. Criminals therefore use
these drugs as a creative way to circumvent the Opium Act. The Opium Act is the section that covers
almost all psychoactive drugs in the Dutch law. Until the legislator bans the new drug, a process that
often takes several years, they have free rein. When it is finally banned, new variants pop up almost
immediately. As a result, justice always falls behind the net.
Risks of consuming designer drugs
Designer drugs can be mass-produced in laboratories. These are usually not the laboratories we are
familiar with, where strict quality requirements and protocols are followed and where checks and
supervision are carried out. They are often large or small laboratories in sheds, cellars, underground
storage areas or abandoned silos. Safety and closely following the recipe are often not a priority:
producing as much and as cheaply as possible is the goal. After production, the designer drugs are
labeled “not fit for human consumption” and are sold in shops and on websites as this can be done
legally.
Because hygiene and safety often leave much to be desired in the production of designer drugs and
raw materials are used as cheaply as possible, you can hardly ever be sure whether your obtained
drugs are of good quality. Information about the correct dosage is also often lacking, which means
that unsafe intake is lurking. Sometimes the drugs are so new that long-term effects and side effects
are not yet known. So you take an extra big risk with the use of designer drugs.
Although designer drugs are thought to have a comparable effect to marijuana and cocaine, these
drugs actually have lethal effects because of their harmful chemical makeup. To fully reveal all the
negative health impacts of synthetic drugs, suitable research is lacking. According to research,
designer drugs are 50 times more effective than cocaine (Wilson, 2022). Evidently, the toxicity of
designer drugs is extremely high. Comparatively speaking, synthetic designer drugs are more potent
and hazardous than their unlawful counterparts.
The synthetic drugs are easily available in various forms and teenagers are the largest group in their
use. Since it is easy and legal to buy the drugs, it is extremely easy for this group to buy the drugs
Your favorite party location or the festival you went to last week, are all places where drug use is
inevitable. With drug use of 19% of all festival goers, it is not surprising if you have ever come into
contact with drugs (Castagna, 2022). Previously, the most famous party drugs were XTC, speed, coke
and GHB, but nowadays there are new types of drugs in circulation: designer drugs. These are
synthetic analogues of legally restricted or prohibited drugs, devised to circumvent drug laws. The
term 'designer' is used because the makers slightly modify the molecular structure of an existing drug
and use it to ‘design’ a new drug. As designer drugs are introduced, and more and more teenagers
fail to understand the risks involved, addiction creeps in with all its consequences. This essay begins
by describing why designer drugs escape criminality. It then addresses the significant risks of
consuming designer drugs. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on
people.
Like some animals redistribute their pigment to get a different color, designers rearrange molecules
to design a different drug. Designer drugs can be purchased legally due to the fact that the chemical
structure is not yet covered in the existing drug laws. Manufacturers are able to make sure people
test negative for a drug test due to the change in the composition of the synthetic drug. The new
chemical composition of the drug means that there is no criminal liability. Criminals therefore use
these drugs as a creative way to circumvent the Opium Act. The Opium Act is the section that covers
almost all psychoactive drugs in the Dutch law. Until the legislator bans the new drug, a process that
often takes several years, they have free rein. When it is finally banned, new variants pop up almost
immediately. As a result, justice always falls behind the net.
Risks of consuming designer drugs
Designer drugs can be mass-produced in laboratories. These are usually not the laboratories we are
familiar with, where strict quality requirements and protocols are followed and where checks and
supervision are carried out. They are often large or small laboratories in sheds, cellars, underground
storage areas or abandoned silos. Safety and closely following the recipe are often not a priority:
producing as much and as cheaply as possible is the goal. After production, the designer drugs are
labeled “not fit for human consumption” and are sold in shops and on websites as this can be done
legally.
Because hygiene and safety often leave much to be desired in the production of designer drugs and
raw materials are used as cheaply as possible, you can hardly ever be sure whether your obtained
drugs are of good quality. Information about the correct dosage is also often lacking, which means
that unsafe intake is lurking. Sometimes the drugs are so new that long-term effects and side effects
are not yet known. So you take an extra big risk with the use of designer drugs.
Although designer drugs are thought to have a comparable effect to marijuana and cocaine, these
drugs actually have lethal effects because of their harmful chemical makeup. To fully reveal all the
negative health impacts of synthetic drugs, suitable research is lacking. According to research,
designer drugs are 50 times more effective than cocaine (Wilson, 2022). Evidently, the toxicity of
designer drugs is extremely high. Comparatively speaking, synthetic designer drugs are more potent
and hazardous than their unlawful counterparts.
The synthetic drugs are easily available in various forms and teenagers are the largest group in their
use. Since it is easy and legal to buy the drugs, it is extremely easy for this group to buy the drugs
