Another so-called Crazy shop selling ‘souvenir’ drug packages, which are not for consumption but which give anyone consuming them a high, is set to open in Prague.
The products on sale, mostly produced in Poland, utilise a loophole in the law by selling products containing legal synthetic substances that produce a high if consumed, as they are sold with the warning that they are not for human consumption.
If you buy a bag of ‘herbs’ or some pills from the shop, you will be given the instruction that if consumed, you should seek medical attention. This is good advice, as at least 40 people have reported to have died already in Europe from ingesting these ‘legal’ products.
The same shops popped up last year in the Slovak Republic, but the Ministry of Health there recently opened up legislation to ban the substances they contained, thereby making them illegal. Czech MPs are following in their footsteps, with a draft bill expected to be submitted by a specially established working group to parliament in March. The legislative process to ban the drugs in the product could take another few months, though.
The problem in both countries is that the list of banned drugs has to be specific, and so each time a new drug is put on the market, the law has to be extended to include the new substance among those that are banned. This ping-pong match could go on for some time, at least until the producer of the products develops a conscience.