What Are Legal Highs?
So what is actually behind the term legal highs? Legal highs are psychoactive substances that have not yet been listed as prohibited under drug legislation. That does not mean they are completely legal, even if the name may suggest it at first. You can buy legal high products online, but they still sit in a legal gray area.
Most products of this kind contain synthetic substances made in laboratories, including synthetic cathinones and synthetic cannabinoids. They are often sold under cover as supposedly legal herbal blends, bath salts, or pills. The chemical active ingredients are not always fully disclosed to users. That is a problem, especially when poisoning or intolerance occurs.
The products are often even sold as if they were not intended for consumption. Many people who use legal high products understand this disguise and smoke or consume them anyway. They are hoping for an intoxicating legal high effect. Taking them may indeed produce a high, but it can also be very dangerous.
Using legal high products is associated with serious health risks, just like the use of any other drug. Poisoning and psychosis are only some of the risks and side effects linked to legal highs.
Dependence on legal highs should not be underestimated. Some users end up going through legal high withdrawal because they can no longer cope properly. Do not let it get that far: stay away from legal high products.
Legal highs are not soft drugs – they can be addictive and dangerous
What Was the Legal High Situation in Germany in 2020?
Are legal highs allowed in Germany? You cannot really say that, even if legal high shops online and in Germany advertise themselves as legal. The legal situation is complicated. Legal highs are not always clearly prohibited, but they are very dangerous.
Until 2016, only substances listed in the German Narcotics Act (BtMG) were banned. These include, for example, speed and MDMA. When a substance was classified as hazardous to health and therefore prohibited by law, new synthetic variants were simply created.
At the end of November 2016, a new law came into force: the Act to Combat New Psychoactive Substances. Since then, not only individual substances but entire groups of substances have been banned. That also affects many legal high products. The following are now prohibited:
- Trading legal highs
- Putting legal highs into circulation
- Manufacturing legal highs
- Importing, exporting, and transporting legal highs through the country
- Acquiring legal highs
- Possessing legal highs
- Administering legal highs
If you have taken legal highs, you should under no circumstances end up in a police check, for example behind the wheel of a car. You may have to take a drug test, such as a legal highs urine test. The consequences can include heavy penalties.
So the situation for legal highs in Germany in 2020 was very precarious.
How Are Legal Highs Used?
The internet is full of searches for legal highs self-experiments and legal highs experiences. Sure, taking a supposedly legal drug can sound tempting. But as you now know, legal highs are by no means simply legal.
Legal highs can be divided into five groups.
- synthetic cannabinoids: sold as herbal blends or incense blends and comparable to the cannabis active ingredient THC
- synthetic cathinones: sold as bath salts and part of the amphetamine group
- phenethylamines: sold as tablets or powder and compared with ecstasy
- piperazines: also sold as pills or powder
- tryptamines: available only as powder and classified as indole alkaloids
Plant-Based Legal High Substances
Questions like “what gets you high and is legal” dominate online searches. Legal highs are trending. What substances are legal highs made from? Most are chemical in nature and artificially produced. Most are prohibited. But are there plant-based alternatives too?
Many plants naturally have soothing, traditional, or intoxicating properties
Legal highs are often offered as herbal blends that appear purely plant-based and natural. Yet even these products often hide synthetic variations of active ingredients also used in cocaine, ecstasy, and cannabis.
One especially well-known legal high is kratom. These are leaves from the kratom tree, which grows in Asia. The leaves of the tropical tree are sold as a miracle product and are said to lift mood and reduce pain. However, there are no solid studies proving its effectiveness; the claims mostly rely on personal reports.
Kratom leaves are banned in many countries or their use is strictly monitored. Switzerland has listed kratom leaves as controlled substances since 2017. In countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, among many others, kratom is also among the controlled substances. In its home country Thailand, kratom use is even sanctioned.
In Germany, the use and sale of kratom is partly legal, which may also be because trade in it is not yet especially large here. Kratom may not be advertised as medicine.
Legal High Risks and Side Effects
Because the ingredients in legal highs are often unknown, legal high risks and side effects occur again and again. Possible consequences of taking them include:
- Psychosis
- Delusions
- Panic attacks
- Muscle cramps
- Racing heart
- Nausea & vomiting
- Circulatory collapse up to heart attack
Real Leaf Products and Their Herbal Character
Every plant has its own character. Real Leaf herbal blends are made from a diverse range of natural herbs, each with its own profile. That is why there is no need to enrich these plants with chemical substances and sell them as legal high herbal blends.
At Real Leaf, we believe that a deeper understanding of the herbs around us matters. Plants have played many roles for people throughout history and across everyday rituals. We focus on natural herbal character, aroma profiles, and tobacco-free smoking moments.
Discover the natural character of plants – without chemical additives
Here you can learn more about our top 15 smokable herbs. You can also read about the story of the traditional herb damiana or catnip. Our herbal cigarettes and our herbal tobacco as a nicotine-free tobacco substitute are also made from selected herbs. Try our herbal tobacco with natural cannabis terpenes too, for example as a practical 3-pack set.
You do not need to smoke legal highs to experience the character of plants. Legal high plants are often chemically processed. At Real Leaf, we clearly reject that.
