US TV show image being used to sell legal highs

The face of the US cult TV show Breaking Bad is being used on packaging to sell legal high drugs.

The lead character of the programme, Walter White, is a teacher who cooks up crystal meth. The character is played by the actor Bryan Cranston, and it is his face that is being put on the packets of legal high drugs as a marketing ploy by drug companies. The pictures of the character are allegedly used without the permission of Sony, the company that owns the UK copyright of Breaking Bad.

One legal online seller, called Buddha Blues, is using Mr Cranston’s face on a legal high drug that has been likened to cocaine and retails at £10 a gram. A competitor, Global Weekends, is also using the face of Mr Cranston on at least one of its synthetic substances, known as Ice N Berg. This name comes from the alias Heisenberg, which Walter White uses in the show. This legal high has been linked to several hospital cases; however, the company is legally allowed to sell the substances because it labels the packets as bath salts and displays the disclaimer that it is not suitable for human consumption.

Jeremy Sare from the Angelus Foundation, a charity against legal high drugs, said: “We have seen countless examples of this kind of disreputable marketing of dangerous ‘legal highs’. This is an industry out of control which plays fast and loose with young people’s health.”