’It’s easy for youths to buy illegal recreational drugs’

Meeting of Knesset Anti-Drug Committee reveals some 47,000 teenagers admitted in anonymous survey that they used illegal mood-changing and mindbending drugs sold in kiosks last year.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Some 47,000 teenagers admitted in an anonymous survey that they used illegal mood-changing and mindbending drugs sold in kiosks last year, it was revealed Tuesday, at a meeting of the Knesset Anti-Drug Committee.
In August, a regulation was changed and now recognizes as illegal a host of drugs, even if their ingredients had been slightly altered, thus closing over 80 percent of a loophole that previously regarded some of the drugs as being legal.
MKs were told that there are over 3,000 “pitzutziot” (kiosks that sell products, some illegal, to youths, especially at night).
Due to the market shortage of some illegal drugs, a new synthetic drug called Mabsuton came onto the market; it does not contain substances from the “families” of forbidden drugs but can be harmful. The committee expects that within two months, it will also be on the forbidden list.
According to recent Health Ministry data, 12 million empty capsules meant for producing illegal drugs have been seized.
Present law does not prevent anyone from importing empty capsules, thus it is urgent that the law be amended to close this loophole so that only authorized individuals are allowed to purchase them for their own medical needs, said committee chairman MK Muhammed Barakeh (Hadash).
He recommended boosting the education of youngsters about the risk of these “recreational drugs.”
The committee MKs were told that the country’s hospitals do not observe regulations that obligate them to document and release data (without naming names) on the number of people who reach their emergency room and are hospitalized after taking these drugs.