Russia identified as a source of online legal highs

Russian authorities have established a link between a batch of legal high drugs available to buy online and the death of 13 people.

The synthetic drugs are not recognised by the authorities in Russia and are therefore not considered illegal. Many of these legal high drugs manufactured in Russia are available to buy online. The deaths of 13 people in Siberia’s Surgut city, and the poisoning of at least 300 in Kirov, have been traced back to a batch of legal highs that were bought online.

Russian newspapers have reported how legal highs have affected users. One such report gave an account of how a young man, who was covered in blood and holding a knife, threatened to throw himself out of a window. His neighbours managed to talk him down. Other accounts involve car crashes, attacks on neighbours and heart and brain seizures. Twelve legal high users have been placed in the intensive care unit of Surgut District Hospital, while 13 more, who are suffering from acute psychosis, have been admitted to the Surgut Neuro-Psychiatric Clinic.

Nadezhda Volchanina, a health official, said of the users: “I don’t think they will recover fully. The use of psychoactive substances destroys brain cells and may cause serious disability and loss of memory.”

The Russian Federal Drug Control Agency has warned that the legal high responsible is a brand new designer drug with two components, which is sold as synthetic marijuana or Spice.