Legal highs: the new ’social tonics’?
Britain’s drugs laws are in a mess, and into the confusion has stepped a new breed of drugs entreprepreneur
By Stephen Armstrong
I meet my dealer, Matt Bowden, in the plush foyer of a Kensington hotel. He welcomes me with a big smile on his boyish face, hands over his business card and opens up his laptop. “I’ve got a PowerPoint presentation on the pills if you’d like to see it,” he offers.
Matt Bowden isn’t exactly an ordinary dealer. Indeed, in the truest sense of the word, he isn’t a dealer at all. For one thing, the pills he’s selling are perfectly legal. He’s a smart marketing man from New Zealand who sees Britain’s unquenchable desire for “social tonics” – his favourite phrase – as a big opportunity.
“There needs to be a move away from prohibition in drug laws,” he argues in his soft Kiwi accent. “Today the laws reward gangsters and that’s completely dysfunctional. What I’m saying is: let’s look at it from a marketing perspective and see what consumer needs are currently being met by criminals. Are people looking to relax? Is it a social lubricant? People take E, for instance, to break down barriers so they can communicate in a social environment. I’m saying we should meet those consumer needs with something that has a lower risk profile.”
More …
https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2006/10/legal-highs-the-new-social-tonics
or http://web.archive.org/web/20220809023721/https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2006/10/legal-highs-the-new-social-tonics