rfmcdonald | [LINK] "Life-destroying 'spice' drug engulfs Russia" (Reply)

Al Jazeera's Mansur Mirovalev describes the advent of a new, terrible drug in Russia, a local variation on bath salts that is being blamed on Ukrainians.

"Spice" has nothing to do with pepper or saffron and is named after a drug that triggered an interstellar war in The Dune, Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel series. First synthesised in 2004, it is an umbrella brand for the ever-growing family of substances whose chemical formula has been constantly changed to avoid blacklisting.

Banned in the United States and the European Union, it is widely available in Russia and several ex-Soviet republics in myriad variations.

But millions of Russians, mostly youngsters, who have tried "spice" in the past decade, believed that it was a harmless, cheap and legal substitute to marijuana. "Spice" pushers maintained the myth with online ads or business cards that can be found on trains or in nightclubs that show laughing cartoon characters, ganja-smoking musician Bob Marley, or slogans such as "100 percent harmless".

It had been openly sold in tobacco shops or tiny kiosks in underground passes, next to transportation hubs or shopping malls until 2009, when authorities started to ban one spice formula after the other. Vigilante youth groups punished "spice" pushers by beating them up, dousing them with paint, and burning their product.

But it's a hydra-headed business with a "designer" drug whose makers are no longer limited by nature and can alter the formula any way they like - turning the users into involuntary guinea pigs that try and test the alterations. "Spice" highs can now mimic the effects of amphetamine, cocaine, or psychedelic drugs.

These days, precursors or the chemical base for "spice" are mass-produced in China or Southeast Asia. They are shipped to Russia as contraband or simply mailed - several grams of the substance hidden in an envelope is enough for several ounces of the market-ready product.