Kronic ingredients secret to stop industry 'cowboys'
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The legal high industry has never revealed what chemical components are in their drugs (Reuters file)
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Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:00a.m.
By Chris Whitworth
An insider from the New Zealand synthetic weed industry says lacing legal drugs with banned ingredients is easy to do during the production process – but why bother.
The man, who chose not to be named, works at a factory that manufactures the legal drugs and says the last thing industry players want is their product tainted with banned substances.
“If you’re in the business of making money why would you want to compromise that by making a product that is inferior or secretly illegal? Why would you want to f*** yourself over by doing that,” he says.
“In my opinion there is no way that [prescription medicine] was purposely in there… you’re stabbing yourself in your own foot.”
The legal high industry has come under fire in the last week after the Ministry of Health discovered small doses of the prescription medicine phenazepam mixed in with two varieties of the synthetic weed brand Kronic.
An immediate recall was placed on Kronic’s Pineapple Express and Juicy Puff Super Strength, with distributors claiming they were unaware of the contamination.
The Otago Daily Times this week revealed the natural ingredients found in synthetic weed from a list they say was provided to them by Kronic manufacturers.
Among the list of plant varieties was blue lotus, baybean, dwarf skullcap, Indian warrior, lion’s tail, maconha brava, pink lotus and Siberian motherwort.
However, the all-important chemical components in the drugs were left off the list.
The legal high worker says secrecy around the drugs’ chemical ingredients is to steer off “cowboys” from making cheap knockoffs, not cover up illegal practices.
“There are so many cowboys out there that want to make a quick buck by doing the same thing,” he says. “It’s not secretive for the fact that they’re doing something wrong, its secretive for the fact that you want to try to keep other people away from just making a cheaper copy.”
In 2010 Environmental Science and Research tested the active ingredients, or cannabinoids, found in Kronic and concluded that all ingredients were legal – despite their effects mimicking the high of marijuana.
The legal high worker says there is a negative perception around synthetic weed manufacturing, with the process thought to be similar to that of cooking up methamphetamine.
“They’ve got a proper factory where they do it, when you were there you felt like you were at work not some meth lab,” he says.
The man’s job is to mix various quantities and ratios of plant matter into large batches that were then sprayed with active chemicals, dried and sold on to legal high retailers.
He says the plants “do close to nothing” and have no real psychoactive properties but are included to give the aesthetics of marijuana.
“I think the reason for them there is so it’s something that you can smoke, not so you can get the effects that they are originally designed for.”
He admits he never dealt directly with the chemicals involved but understood they were imported, as opposed to the plants that are grown locally.
This week the main players in the New Zealand legal high industry met to tighten regulations in light of the prescription drug being found in Kronic.
The Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne said he was “cynical” about their sudden move towards self-regulation.
But the legal high worker says the industry wants to work alongside the Ministry of Health to crack down on cowboys and ensure their products are safe and legal.
“They’re not scared of this regulation, they’d prefer more control, they’d prefer it not to be in the dairies,” he says.
3 News
Friday 8 July 2011
Kronic ingredients secret to stop industry 'cowboys' - Story - National - 3 News
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