The Scottish Drugs Forum is a charity that advocates for evidence-informed harm reduction approaches and has a directory of drug services on their website. Answering these questions is important if we want to ensure that liberalising access to drugs doesn’t lead to people harming themselves unknowingly or due to lack of decision-making competence. In my paper, I take up these questions and argue that, in order to make drug liberalisation as safe as possible, the role of pharmacists in the overall delivery of healthcare will need to change in two ways. Such methods, however, often involve complex technologies that require specialist knowledge to navigate, therefore reducing accessibility. In contrast, apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp can provide an easily accessible platform that quickly connects buyers with commercial drug suppliers. The research concludes that the combination of social media platforms as advertising spaces and encrypted messaging apps has opened up a relatively easy and safe space for the drugs economy to flourish.
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It’s also illegal to allow premises you own, rent, use or occupy to be used for any drug-related activity. The majority of respondents did not report finding a supplier, or a desired drug, to be more difficult when comparing their experiences to before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, difficulties in finding a supplier, and a desired drug, were more often reported as the first national lockdown eased and lifted an observation consistent with supply shortages. Brits are using more MDMA and psychedelics, are more likely to buy drugs from the darknet and more likely to be hospitalised after using purer cocaine. EMCDDA/EUROPOL report identifies growing use of darknet for drug dealing and calls for international co-operation to prevent continued growth.
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Examples include cannabis, coca leaf, ecstasy, LSD, raw opium and psilocin (when extracted from magic mushrooms). Less serious offences are usually dealt with by magistrates’ courts, where sentences can’t exceed six months and/or a £5,000 fine, or three months and/or a fine. Although maximum penalties are severe, only around one in five people convicted of possession receive a custodial sentence and even fewer actually go to prison, with the majority of fines £50 or less. Anabolic steroids are prescription-only medicines that are sometimes taken without medical advice, to increase muscle mass and improve athletic performance.
- However, they would likely be confiscated if they were found in your possession on the way into a festival or club.
- If you are worried about the drug or alcohol use of a young person in your care, there are support services available to you.
- If a price was absurdly high, it was ignored; such “holding prices” are used by dealers to indicate a lack of supply.
- Recently there has been a surge in the amount of drugs being bought on the dark web.
- From the 1 June 2015, Section 51 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 extends injunctions to prevent gang-related violence to include gang-related drug-dealing activity.
- The market is well known to law enforcement and investigations have taken place across the UK, Europe & America.
The move comes as part of Ajax’s effort to stamp out the state’s gray and black markets; of the roughly 13.5m pounds of weed grown in California in 2016, about 80% was consumed illegally out of state. Online dealers mostly sell their drugs as “research” even though pills are put in bottles or blister packs and powders in capsules. On Instagram, people looking to buy drugs simply search via hashtags such as #weed4sale or the names of the drugs themselves (#mdma, #mephedrone etc).
Seizures of Fentanyl powders have ranged from milligram to kilogram quantities. The seized powders may be relatively pure or mixed with one or more substances including commonly used cutting agents (such as mannitol, lactose, and paracetamol), as well as heroin and other opioids. When there are so many apps out there to help people access drugs more easily, the value of the work by the Global Drug Survey becomes even more obvious. GDS drugs meter app allows users to see how their drug use compares to other people just like them, offering objective, personalised feedback that takes their personal features in to account. FRANK is a website that has honest information about drugs, details of local and national services, and where to go to if you need help.
- When you talk to a doctor or any healthcare professional, it’s all confidential.
- Any requirement can be imposed for the purpose of punishment depending on the individual offender, though normally rehabilitation activity requirements (RARs) and treatment requirements should not be.
- To find more information about these support services and information on alcohol and other drugs, visit their website here.
- DrugWise also details the background behind UK drug laws on their website.