Pubdate: Mon, 31 Mar 2008
Source: Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Copyright: 2008 The Jerusalem Post
Contact: http://info.jpost.com/C002/Services/Feedback/editors.html
Website: http://www.jpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/516
Authors: Miriam Bulwar, David-Hay

CITY JOINS WITH POLICE TO DECLARE WAR ON PARTY DRUG

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.
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