Drug dealers on the holiday island of Ibiza are using tourists as guinea pigs to test new synthetic drugs before they are marketed across Europe, according to the Daily Express.
Detectives in the resort of San Antonio are desperately trying to track down one drug being marketed, after it was blamed for leading a British tourist to bite a policeman’s hand.
The drugs are synthetic and produced in makeshift laboratories, so dealers often have no idea what effect they will have on the user. As they are not in a position to conduct proper trials they simply dump a quantity onto the market in Ibiza and see what happens. If they drugs are popular and there are only a few deaths or injuries, they mass produce them.
In the case of the ‘cannibal drug’ the police were trying to restrain the tourist when he bit the police officer. He bit despite already being in handcuffs.
Matilde Fernandez, a nurse at a health centre in San Antonio, confirmed the officer had been injured. She went on to say: “Police had to call back up and we ended up with eight officers on the scene.”
Anti-drugs squad chief Alberto Arean told a local radio station: “Our hope is that it was just a small batch and has now been consumed.”
For decades drug consumption remained relatively predictable with ‘household name’ drugs like cannabis, cocaine and heroin. However drug dealers have found ways to circumvent the law by constantly changing the chemical makeup of synthetic designer drugs.
In the UK chemical substances are generally legal to own until they are made a “controlled drug” meaning their usage is restricted by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It is illegal to sell drugs for human consumption without proper testing but dealers get around this by putting a disclaimer on it referring to the substances as plant food, or some other fake description.
Despite their claims not to be for human consumption they often have names like “Purple Bomb” and “Euphoria”, and their packaging makes clear the true purpose of the product.
Once the drug becomes prevalent the government adds it to the list of controlled drugs and the dealers slightly modify the compound and sell the new one. The problem comes that this requires a certain amount of research, and dealers now use Ibiza as an open air human testing laboratory.
Balearics Islands health chief Raul Izquierdo warned the drugs were “especially dangerous” because of their “unknown side effects.”
He added: “Ibiza is the gateway and the experimental laboratory for the new drugs that appear.”
Synthetic drugs and legal highs are quickly eliminating traditional drugs from clubs across Europe. It is now rare to find cocaine or ecstasy dealers in the clubs of South London. They have been replaced by people selling cheaper, and often unknown substances with side effects that are largely unknown.
The changing nature of the chemical compounds makes the drugs war impossible to win but politicians are still unlikely to begin legalisation. This is because they would appear soft on crime and there is a huge taxpayer funded anti-drugs industry that relies on prohibition.
Organisations like the Police Drugs Squad are likely to fight hard to maintain illegality in order to protect their jobs.