Legal Highs
They’re legal, they have user reviews on websites, and lots of people take
them and seem fine the next day, so they must be safe, right? Err,
actually……
“Legal Highs” are substances that are sold legally in shops and online, that
have been discovered to have mind/mood altering properties when
consumed.
Traditionally, substances that have this effect, such as alcohol, cannabis,
cocaine etc. are either regulated by licensing laws or banned.
However, a loophole in the law allows for other such substances to be sold as
long as they are clearly marked as “not for human consumption”.
They can therefore include anything that sellers usually refer to as research
chemicals, plant food, bath crystals or pond cleaner.
When packaged and sold, such substances may go by names such as “benzo
fury”, “bubble”, “meow meow”, “m-cat”, “salvia”, “hippy crack”, “liquid E” and
“scoop”. These are just a few examples. The list is endless and constantly
changing.
Probably the first thing to be aware of is that the contents of legal highs could
actually be anything. Research carried out by the Club Drug Clinic recently
found that items identically packaged, purchased from the same website on
the same day, turned out to be two completely different chemical compounds
when analysed in a laboratory. So if you were to take one of these
substances, you wouldn’t actually have any idea what you were putting into
your system and what affect it is likely to have at all.
Secondly, these substances really aren’t suitable for human consumption at
all. Although they may have an effect on your mood, stamina, etc. that you
enjoy in the short term, the often have harmful side effects that might not be
apparent straight away.
Often, legal highs are taken in conjunction with alcohol or other drugs, making
their effects even more unpredictable.
NHS services have reported sharp rises in the number of young people
needing emergency treatment after taking legal highs.
Treating these patients is particularly complicated because when they arrive,
hospital staff can only treat the symptoms (they don't know what the patient
has taken and neither does the patient). As a result, treating them can
become a process of elimination that takes time whilst the patient may be
getting worse.
Common symptoms are a very fast heartbeat, high blood pressure and
muscles beginning to break down leading to a very high risk of having a
stroke or heart attack. They may also have very altered perception which
makes it difficult to help or treat them. Comas and seizures are also fairly
common.
Those that survive often go on to develop irreversible damage to internal
organs after repeated use. For example, some are known to destroy the
bladder, so that people affected become permanently incontinent.
New laws have been passed which allow for new drugs to be quickly banned
for 12 months if they are suspected of being used recreationally. The
government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) then decide
whether they should be permanently controlled.
Mephedrone was one such banned drug. However, research carried out by
Lancaster University and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust,
indicates it has since risen in popularity and use amongst club-goers.
Also, the manufacturers of legal highs have responded to these measures by
constantly making minor changes to the chemical structure of their products,
sufficient that they are distinct from any banned substance, but still similar
enough to have the same effect and therefore to sell well.
So, the law currently doesn’t seem to be effective at regulating the availability
of dangerous substances that are increasingly widely available,
recommendations from other people who’ve taken similarly packaged
products are unreliable, harmful effects are unpredictable and have proved to
be fatal on occasion, and even if you’re lucky enough to hit upon something
that does produce the desired result without any nastiness and you have a
great night out as a result, there’s no guarantee that you haven’t damaged
yourself in a way that’ll become apparent in a few weeks/months/years, or
that if you repeat the exercise the next night, you’ll experience the same
outcome.
In effect, what you’d be doing by taking a legal high, is akin to walking into a
shop that sells sweets, chalk, cyanide capsules, bleach, lemonade and
laxatives, putting on a blindfold, picking something randomly off a shelf and
eating it.
It’s up to you to decide whether or not to take that risk.
You can find out more information about legal highs by visiting talktofrank.com
If you think you or someone you know might have problems resulting from
drug use, the following service provides free confidential advice and
counselling:
Club Drug Clinic in at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital for confidential
advice on 020 3315 6111 or email clugdrugclinic.cnwl@nhs.net or Turning
Point ……………………
Adapted from Chris Ward, Mental Health Advisor, University of Surrey 3/2013.