HULL, England, June 1 (UPI) -- Many drugs, billed as "legal highs" on the Internet, do not contain the ingredients claimed and some contain illegal substances, a British researcher says.
Dr. Mark Baron of the University of Lincoln in England says he set out to determine the drug content of products deemed legal highs and purchased online a broad variety of products advertised as research chemicals, bath salts or plant food -- although clearly marketed toward the recreational drug user.
"It is clear that consumers are buying products that they think contain specific substances, but that in reality the labels are unreliable indicators of the actual contents," Baron says in a statement.
"The product name cannot be used as an indication of what it contains as there is variation in the content of the same product name between different Internet sites."
Six out of seven products did not contain the advertised active ingredient and five samples contained the controlled substances benzylpiperazine and 1-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenypiperazine combined with caffeine, Baron says.
"No guidelines exist as to what is sold and in what purity and consumers are led to believe that purchased goods are entirely legal," Baron adds.
