Reading the thread about Sir Ian Gilmore, I felt it might be of interest to point out that the war on drugs has found itself a new bogeyman already:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/17/ivory-wave-drug-alleged-death
I'm normally extremely sceptical about reports like this, regardless of whether they appear in reactionary right wing rags like the Daily Mail or the supposedly more liberal media.
Nonetheless, there is a caveat here. I went clubbing on my birthday weekend with three friends who'd bought some of this stuff, and whilst none of them met their untimely ends, all testified that it was one of the most unpleasant drug experiences that they'd ever had. One had a panic attack and had to leave the club, one vomited profusely, and one had a breakdown and ended up hospitalised and eventually living back with his parents a few weeks later - although I'm not trying to imply that Ivory Wave was the cause of this, it may have been one of several factors that triggered it. None of them had drunk any alcohol, as there is a clear warning on the back of the packet that that mixing Ivory wave with booze can cause the user to go into a coma.
Overall I'm not sorry I opted not to try this particular concoction Could it be that the media panic is actually justified for once? Or are the press merely doing what they usually do and focussing on one substance at the expense of several others which those who are alleged to have died had ingested as well? I'm buggered if I know - but either way the profusion of legal substances like this on the market is surely further proof that the war on drugs isn't being won. I've no doubt that as soon as it gets banned another slight variation on the same chemical compound will
appear on the market virtually overnight.
Cases like this also highlight how dangerous mass ignorance can be - if ecstacy had never been outlawed, I wonder how many former users would be interested in trying legal substances like this which are potentially far more dangerous in the first place.
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