Last time I told you a little bit about 'smart drugs' madness in Poland. My conclusion was that these substances became so popular in my country because of harsh drug policy we got over here. It isn't only legal high business making profits due to our our drug laws, pharmaceutical companies do as well.

While you can get suspended sentence for possession of any amount of drugs, even for personal use, many medicines containing psychoactive substances can be obtained in every drugstore without prescription and any risk. The most popular are cough-killers containing:

-psychedelic DXM

-speeding Ephedrine and Pseudo-Ephedrine

-Codeine

DXM is often used by teenage wanna-be-psychonauts, Codeine is opiate which can easily become gateway drug to Heroine and Ephedrine is used by students who want to study or party all night long without being tired, also with simple synthesis other drugs my be created of it, like Methcathinone.

In the towns which are close to Polish-Czech boarder demand for medicines containing Ephedrine is 3-4 times higher than in the rest of the country. Czech dealers are buying these medicines in Poland because in Czech Republic sale of them is limited, because they can be used as semiproduct for creation of other, stronger drugs. So paradoxally Poland with it's very harsh drug law is drug dealer for Czech Republic, country with very liberal drug policy.

Misusing medicines have got the same advantages as using legal highs: there is no risk of being busted, quality of drugs is always the same and they can be bought always in the same place, sometimes even 24/7. Ironically these medicines are often more harmful than regular drugs. Cought-killers are containing other substances as well (apart from psychoactive ones) that can for example damage your liver very badly.

Unlike the case of 'smart drugs' governament isn't doing anything to stop this bussiness. Seems like pharmaceutical companies have better lobbists than 'legal high' wholesalers.