War on designer drugs

9th October 2010

The “designer drug” industry in Poland found itself facing the wrath of the authorities after the government announced a massive crackdown on the trade in an attempt to stamp out the flourishing business sector.

Some 900 shops across the country selling the drugs were closed, while Dawid Bratko, dubbed the “designer-drug king” by the Polish media owing to his ownership of a successful chain of designer-drug shops, was arrested for selling proscribed substances.

Although Polish law prohibits the sale of narcotics, designer drugs had remained legal owing to the fact that they had never been included on the list of banned drugs.

But following a number of deaths linked to the dr ...