City joins with police to declare war on party drug

The Tel Aviv municipality has decided to use food sale laws to put an end to the sale of the 'Hagigat' drug at kiosks.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
pills 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
pills 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Tel Aviv has decided to join police in fighting against the party drug Hagigat and its substitutes, reports the Hebrew weekly Yediot Tel Aviv. The city has announced that local kiosks that continue to sell the substance may lose their business licenses, and issued warnings to three kiosks last week on the matter. Hagigat and other so-called party drugs have long been a thorn in the side of police and medical authorities, who say their unlisted and uncontrolled mix of chemicals is often illegal and can be dangerous. But attempts to curtail sales have proved difficult. The report said that until now the authorities have operated under drug laws, and if the chemicals in the drugs have not previously been declared illegal, police have had no right of redress. But even when the substances do contain illegal drugs, by the time the authorities analyze them and announce their findings, the manufacturers have already changed the name and the composition and have distributed a new substance to kiosks around the city. Now the municipality has decided to use food sale laws to put an end to the party drug sales. The law requires that all food and drink products must carry a label stating their ingredients and their manufacturers, and because the party drugs come in capsules without this information, they are in breach of the law. In the initial stages, the city has been forgiving - it revoked the business licenses of three kiosk owners last week, but reinstated them when the owners promised not to sell unlabelled food products again. "We have reached the conclusion that all the tablets that are made by anonymous manufacturers are poisoning our youth," a municipal spokesman said. "Revoking a business license seems to be a much more convincing act than all the criminal processes, and is much quicker too." The report said that several kiosk owners said they would stop selling the party drugs, but many others had not heard of the city's new policy.