Spice ‘herbal high’ hits lows as experts plan to slap ban

A storm seems to be building at the periphery, as British government advisors mark their first move ever, against the growing ‘legal highs’ market.

What is expected to start with a permanent ban on the Spice herbal smoking mixture is quite expected to snowball into a large-scale initiative to curb the sale of millions of herbal drug substitutes.

Spice, which owns several variants of herbal smoking mixtures, has been found to possess strong strains of skunk cannabis. The government’s drug experts, from UK's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) are expected to recommend banning the sale of this product from tomorrow, after months of thorough investigations.

The investigation, triggered by a request, in March, from the former home secretary Jacqui Smith, to investigate Spice, found the product to be rich in artificial chemicals causing powerful cannabis like effects.

Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, when induced causes psychoactive and physiological effects, often proving to be harmful to humans.

It is not the first time that Spice Gold, a Chinese import, finds itself in the docks. The product has already been banned in Germany and Austria from January and in France from February this year, for similar reasons.

Advertised as a strength giving herbal high, this so-called ‘aromatic potpourri’ of unknown herbs, flower, leaves, aromas and synthetic chemicals, is available on various websites, in 3gram pouches, costing $20.

Different variants of the product promise different levels of strength.

However, the fact is that, rich in marijuana, these products harm the human body in ways more than one. Thus, the government finds it pre-emptive to make people, especially youngsters aware of their effects and curb this unregulated market, by declaring such substances as illegal drugs.

The decision, which now lies with the British home secretary, Alan Johnson, is not only expected to declare Spice illegal but, is also later expected to turn guns towards many other similar products marketed as legal highs, but rich in lethal banned drugs.