Phuket teens concoct 'legal high' using pharmacy drugs

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Phuket teens concoct 'legal high' using pharmacy drugs
Phuket Gazette


Gas is prepared by mixing cough medicine, allergy medicine, pain killers, or muscle relaxants with a soft drink or other mixer. Photo: Jamie

PHUKET: -- A dangerous new drug mixture known as ‘gas’ is gaining popularity among Phuket teenagers and others in the southern region. The drug – prepared by mixing cough medicine, allergy medicine, pain killers, or muscle relaxants with a soft drink or other mixer – has yet to be declared illegal.

Currently, pharmacists are allowed to sell these drugs to walk-in customers, making them easier to access. This is one of the main reasons for its popularity among teenagers.

Officers are now trying to restrict the sale of these drugs to hospitals only, in order to stem the increase in consumption of the drink.

“We do not have an exact number of teenage consumers, but we can say that it is increasing, because the number of pharmacies charged with faking their sales records is increasing,” Somsuk Sumparnprateep, head of the consumer protection division of the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), told the Phuket Gazette.

WHAT IS GAS?

“The mixture was first produced and consumed many years ago, but our officers only came to know about it in 2013. It originated from the South and is a variation of 4x100, which is a mixture of kratom and cough syrup. It is mostly popular among 15 to 18 year olds,” Sithisak Kallyanapradit, director of the Narcotics Control Board (NCB), told the Gazette.

Full story: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Phuket-teens-concoct-legal-high-using-pharmacy/64005?desktopversion#ad-image-0


-- Phuket Gazette 2016-06-06

[Squeegee]

[noitom]

So now you'll have to go to a Thai hospital to get allergy and muscle relaxants. What a racket.

[BigBadGeordie]

Perhaps not the best idea to publish the formula in the article, but then again a quick google will suffice.

Preparing one batch of gas requires a 100cc bottle of Procodyl and 10 pills of Tramadol. - See more at: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Phuket-teens-concoct-legal-high-using-pharmacy/64005?desktopversion#ad-image-0

[me313]

Why doesn't the Thai gov't legalize Kratom and Marijuana so kids can have a more healthy Wasteland to partee in without risk of liver failure, overdose, or other risks to self or others?

[SOTIRIOS]

...legal...???

...where and how do they acquire prescription drugs...so that it makes this legal...???

[klauskunkel]

Well, the PM asked Thais to innovate... and, ooops, there it is!

[AlQaholic]

In the U.K. similar drugs prepared ready for sale was until very recently legal.

[Pinot]

Why doesn't the Thai gov't legalize Kratom and Marijuana so kids can have a more healthy Wasteland to partee in without risk of liver failure, overdose, or other risks to self or others?

That makes way too much sense. Two substances legal in many places throughout the world. This would also free up the BIB for law enforcement of real problem drugs infinitely more dangerous like Yaba and Ice.

[DrTuner]

So now you'll have to go to a Thai hospital to get allergy and muscle relaxants. What a racket.

Nice little earner for docs writing prescriptions at 500b a pop.

[thaiduncankk]

So now you'll have to go to a Thai hospital to get allergy and muscle relaxants. What a racket.

Nice little earner for docs writing prescriptions at 500b a pop.

At Government hospitals, no.