Legal - but lethal: How your child can buy drugs online as easily as you order your Waitrose groceries

Middle-class legal drug retailers are making millions through online trade

Websites claim to sell 'research chemicals', but they mimic illegal drugs



They're bought at the click of a button by people seeking chemical highs



The number of people dying from legal highs has quadrupled over 5 years



Their wedding last December was a classy affair. The blushing bride carried a bouquet made of crystal and described her big day at the upmarket Chevin Country Park Hotel and Spa near Leeds as perfect.



Fireworks and a chocolate fountain kept guests amused into the evening. Yet many of them would have been horrified if they had known what had financed the lavish nuptials.



Seemingly respectable Karen Gaughan, 40, and Julian Patrick, 35, are modern-day drug barons who run a lucrative company selling 'legal highs' over the internet .



Mr and Mrs Big: Modern-day drug barons Julian Patrick and Karen celebrating their nuptials

Gaughan and Patrick, who live with her children in a gated house on the outskirts of Leeds and drive his-and-hers BMWs with personalised numberplates, are able to get away with this by claiming the pills they sell are for scientific use - which is perfectly legal - and not for human consumption - which most definitely is not legal.



Their £500,000 business, Buy Research Chemicals UK, claims to sell 'novel organic compounds to UK-based institutes, chemistry students, chemistry enthusiasts and freelance research scientists'.



It's true they sell lab coats and scientific apparatus on their website, but quite how many scientists are snapping up substitute amphetamines, cannabis substitutes and hallucinogenics is debatable.

Gaughan and Patrick are just two of a number of middle-class legal drug retailers making millions of pounds out of a lucrative trade that often ends in misery.



Other websites also claim they supply 'research chemicals', thus exploiting a loophole in drug laws, but the products they sell are far more likely to be sought by people seeking a chemical high.



These concoctions are designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs. There are more than 200 varieties, with new ones created at a rate of one a week, mostly in Chinese labs.



Alarmingly, they can be bought at the click of a button as easily as Waitrose groceries, to be delivered the next day.



The number of people dying from now banned legal highs has quadrupled in the past five years.



There have been 77 deaths from drugs including GBH and Meow Meow, though none have been linked to drugs sold by the research chemical sites identified in this report.



High times: Julian and Karen live in a gated house and drive his-and-hers BMWs

Last month, a coroner issued a stark warning about the 'savage legacy' of the formerly legal high M-Cat after a young woman died in April 2012 from taking the drug.



Aimee Costello, 20, snorted the drug after drinking vodka and Red Bull on a night out in April 2012.

The following day, she complained that her heart 'felt funny' before collapsing and dying.



Two of her former friends received suspended prison sentences after they admitted supplying her with the drug, which is also called mephedrone and is now illegal.



As quickly as a legal high is made illegal, it is replaced by a legal version - often with only a tiny tweak to its chemical composition - placing it out of the reach of law enforcers.



However, on the street it can be a different story: police have found that 19 per cent of legal highs contain a banned substance.



The judge said: 'Many people seem to think that drugs of the M-cat genre are harmless. They are dangerous. And as this case demonstrates they can kill.'



Aimee's parents said: 'We hope her death will serve as a warning against so-called party drugs as they can kill just as easily as drugs traditionally regarded as dangerous.'



So who are the people who ply youngsters with these poisons?



Before getting into the research chemicals industry, Julian Patrick called himself Mephedrone Storm and sold Meow Meow around Leeds until it was criminalised in 2010.



The drug, linked to a string of deaths in Britain, was sold as 'plant fertiliser' - another euphemism used by legal-high dealers. In 2009, he advertised his services thus: 'Pure white crystals; fast, free delivery; friendly customer service.'



Sly times: Gaughan and Patrick's £500,000 business Buy Research Chemicals UK sells 'novel organic compounds'

Now he offers a dizzying array of chemicals including ethylphenidate, known as legal crack, and 5-MEO-DALT, a hallucinogen with strong psychedelic effects.



These are marketed alongside 'herbal potpourri' with names such as Funky Buddha, Blueberry Blitz and Smokey - all strikingly suggestive of cannabis substitutes.



Like other legal high operations, Gaughan and Patrick work within the letter of the law. Indeed, last weekend, he posted a 'warning' on his website, reminding customers that the drugs he sells are for research use only.



He wrote: 'Recently, we have seen a worrying rise in people emailing, phoning, etc and asking or making highly alarming statements or questions, that imply dangerous research activities prohibited by our strict terms and conditions of trade.



'This is of serious concern to us. Just to be CRYSTAL CLEAR. The chemicals we supply are laboratory chemicals, analytical standards and reagents, and are not approved for in-vivo research, for very good legal and safety reasons.'



Patrick says it is of 'grave concern' to him that customers have heard Haze potpourri has the same effects as cannabis: 'This material is NOT sold or intended for human consumption and must not be combusted.'



However, on legal high rating websites, Buy Research Chemicals is highly recommended by users, who write lightly coded testimonials such as: 'I am blown away by your service, so fast, so efficient my head is still spinning.'



Documents at Companies House show Patrick officially dissolved Buy Research Chemicals in December 2011, but continues to use the brand name.









"'There is no reason why a legitimate chemist would use any of these sites,' says John Ramsey, Britain's leading expert on legal highs. 'Some of the chemicals are synthesised specifically for the abuse market. We have no idea what damage they could do, so the people taking them are being treated as guinea pigs.' "



With his wife, he opened a new company, Scientific Supplies, in May 2011. It has a healthy balance sheet, with £421,306 in the bank.



Typically, websites selling these drugs are making £25,000 a week, according to one source.



Another site, PureChemicals.net, sells 5-MeO-Dalt and ethylphenidate in professional-looking packaging stamped 'for laboratory use only' and 'not for human consumption'. It advertises 'secure and discreet shipping' - which would not alert concerned parents.



Co-founder Jacob Brady, 25, lives at his family home in Brighton. His father is a university lecturer.

Contacted last week, Brady insisted he is a legitimate business-man who sells to reputable laboratories and researchers.



But a video posted by the company tells a different story. It advertises Blueberry Blitz, Mad Hatter, Purple Haze and Black Mamba next to a photo of a model in a low-cut lab coat and plays a club song called Original Nuttah.



The company's Twitter feed retweets entrepreneur Richard Branson, arguing that drugs should be treated as a health issue, not a criminal issue.



TV presenter Jonathan Ross is also quoted, commenting on a programme where people took drugs live, along with former government drug adviser Professor David Nutt, well known for his liberal views.



Brady insists that none of his products are intended 'for human consumption' and says they comply with laws on labelling hazardous substances.



'We are as compliant as a bottle of bleach. Unfortunately, people misuse everything,' he said.



Other dealers of these 'research' chemicals include a former telecoms engineer from Southend, Essex, who sells them alongside sex toys.



Then there is David Lavington, 28, a trader in 'wholesale of chemical products'. This is another euphemism for legal highs. In the past, the business offered a drop-off service in Leeds.



A spokesman told me: 'We are an internet-only company at present, I'm afraid. However, if you order before 3pm the goods are sent the same day.' He refused to reveal any more details.



Then there are the chains of High Street shops selling chemicals. They include UK Skunkworks, which has dozens of outlets - and is again perfectly legal.



Mephedrone Storm: Julian Patrick's Twitter alias, which he used to sell Meow Meow before it was criminalised in 2010

'The UK's premier one-stop head shop', as it advertises itself, is run by Max Mulley, 29. It sells legal highs, but naturally 'not for human consumption'.



Incredibly, it's offering franchises, saying: 'Have you ever thought how successful a Skunkworks store could be in your own town? Well, now is your chance to turn this thought into a reality.'



There is Dr Hermans in Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, which sells products such as Gocaine, a cocaine substitute.



Redeye is another chain with a sophisticated website.



'There is no reason why a legitimate chemist would use any of these sites,' says John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St George's Medical School in South London and Britain's leading expert on legal highs.



'Some of the chemicals are synthesised specifically for the abuse market. We have no idea what damage they could do, so the people taking them are being treated as guinea pigs.



'I can't imagine these substances ever being used in a real lab.



'If it looks like a duck and swims like a duck, then it is a duck, but the drug enforcement agencies seem to think differently. I don't know why it's not possible for them to see through this subterfuge.'



Professor Les Iversen, chairman of the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, says that the people behind these legal highs keep one step ahead of the law by tweaking their formulas as soon as new bans are introduced, creating new compounds with similar psychoactive effects.



'These sites are using our own laws against us,' he says.



Invading your High Street: Skunkworks, self-described as 'the UK's premier one-stop head shop', is a chain of shops selling chemicals

'They are getting round the Medicines Act by selling chemicals in packs labelled very prominently “not for human consumption”.



'They get round consumer advertising by not calling them drugs and referring to pellets instead of tablets.'



When news reports on Gaughan and Patrick's activities emerged, she restricted her Facebook page, changing her profile picture to an anonymous image of a heart inscribed 'love one another'.



She also resigned as director of Scientific Supplies, a move formalised at Companies House on May 28. Patrick remains as the single director of the company.



The couple did not respond to messages from the Daily Mail seeking an interview. This week they appeared to be away - neighbours believe they are at their property in Spain.



Meanwhile, the Government is playing an endless game of catch-up with legal high drug barons.



At the end of last year, it announced that new synthetic cannabinoids, such as Black Mamba and methoxetamine, sold as Mexxy, would be made illegal.



A spokesman for the Angelus Foundation, which is calling for a wholesale ban on research chemical sites, said: 'This is now one of the most successful industries in Britain.



'There are huge profit ratios and these people are getting much more confident.



'They say these products are only for over-18s, but, of course, it's 15, 16 and 17-year-olds who are trying these legal highs.



'Surely it can't be beyond the wits of officials and ministers to stop this facade of selling toxic products saying “not for human consumption”, when we all know what is going on.'



Campaigner Maryon Stewart set up the foundation to raise awareness of legal highs following the death of her daughter Hester after taking GBL in 2009.



'These websites know exactly who they are selling to and what these chemicals are used for,' she says.

