Psychonauts explore unknown world of legal highs with themselves as lab rats

Daniel, until finally recently, was a researcher, employing his bedroom as a laboratory. His apparatus was his very own brain. He bought chemical compounds labelled “not for human use” on the internet, ingested them and waited to see no matter whether he was headed for heaven or hell. At times he wondered if he was going to die.

He was experimenting with novel psychoactive substances – so-referred to as legal highs. These are generally primarily based on banned medicines, this kind of as MDMA or ecstasy, and cannabis. Variations in the formula enable them to be offered legally, but no one can be certain what effect they are going to have on the user’s thoughts or physique – and the physicians dealing with the casualties in A&ampE have no thought what the substance is that has accomplished the injury or how to treat the patient in distress ahead of them.

Daniel, 23, who lives in London, had some negative experiences. He bought some methoxphenidine. “I think I took too considerably – I overdosed on that,” he explained. He had combined it with one more “analysis chemical” equivalent to the benzodiazepines such as Valium.

“I have no memory of the night. I remember contemplating it was not functioning and I took some more. The subsequent point I knew I opened my eyes and my dad and mom had been sitting there, so concerned. I had this huge lump in my tongue and it felt as if I’d pulled every muscle in my entire body, which leads me to think I may possibly have had a seizure.”

But he did not stop then. “I considered I required to be a lot, a lot much more mindful but it didn’t totally place me off.”

What last but not least sent him to the Westminster Drug Undertaking was his realisation of how much discomfort and worry he was leading to his mother and father – he now has a occupation and is striving to lead a drug-totally free life.

Legal highs are often banned in the Uk, but the method is akin to the game of whack-a-mole. Each and every time a chemical compound is created illegal, one particular or much more new and legal options turn up alternatively, often inside of days.

The trail begins in what Prof Fabrizio Schifano, an professional in drug misuse from the alcohol and drug treatment method organisation CRI and Hertfordshire University, calls “rogue labs” that manufacture the drugs, usually in the far east. “A molecule which has been banned nowadays is going to be modified. Tomorrow you have a molecule which is just a derivative and still potent – but it is legal,” he mentioned. Something that is legal has the semblance of safety, he stated, providing men and women a false sense of reassurance. But if issues go wrong, the common urine exams used by hospitals will most likely not detect it and medical doctors are left in the dark.

Residence-grown

The chemical substances could come from China, but considerably of the industry is property-grown.

There are people in Britain importing and packaging the drugs and marketing them on Uk sites. There are warnings everywhere on the sites that these chemicals are for study and not for human consumption, alongside chat about the latest compounds to be banned – or about to be banned – and new ones coming along.

Some of the “researchers”, like Daniel, know a bit about chemistry – he did a degree in it. These are the explorers, or “psychonauts”, who launch themselves into the unknown as their extremely very own lab rats. The much more mindful amid them set the trail for other individuals, blogging in depth accounts of how prolonged it took for the drug to kick in, what type of result it had at particular dosages and the duration – and what were the short or long-term consequences.

“Specifically with a few of the truly unknown chemical substances I came across, there was a sense absolutely of experimenting on myself because there was so tiny details out there. Everyone reacts differently to distinct medicines. The much less information there is, the more threat there is,” said Daniel.

He was hunting for compounds that would mimic the effects of the banned drug ketamine, to which he was at 1 stage addicted. “What I discovered fascinating was that they have been equivalent in some ways but various in other approaches,” he mentioned. “It was a bit of a lottery.”

The risks are enormous and the casualties almost certainly greater than most realise. A Residence of Commons residence affairs committee report in December mentioned that deaths involving legal highs had risen from 29 in 2011 to 52 in 2012, but due to the fact customers combine their drugs and most drink alcohol with them as effectively, the result in of death may possibly not constantly be particular. Other people could endure harm from not currently being in manage of their thoughts or their body, even although crossing a street.

It is not just the psychonauts who take these drugs. They are offered in what are acknowledged as “head stores” in substantial streets, which sell the legal paraphernalia utilised with unlawful drugs, from tobacco papers to water pipes, as effectively as herbal incense and tiny packets of powder or crystal that are “not for human consumption”. They have no indication of any power or dosage. Those who get in the head retailers usually have a great deal less knowledge of chemistry than Daniel.

Jeremy Sare, director of government affairs and communication at the Angelus Basis, the only charity focused solely on legal highs, says synthetic cannabis is a huge issue. “It arrives as powder and is dissolved into liquid and hand-sprayed on to vegetable matter that looks a bit like cannabis,” he said. “It is massively more powerful than cannabis or skunk. You get 15 year-olds at school smoking the stuff in the lunch break thinking it is a bit of a giggle – and then you have a fleet of ambulances taking them off.

Black Mamba

“Some varieties of synthetic cannabis have been manufactured illegal – like Black Mamba – but there are dozens of different sorts and they are extremely robust.”

All the professionals say the current legal strategy is not the solution. “There are record quantities recorded of new substances each and every 12 months,” stated Sare. “I think it is old thinking to attain for the Misuse of Medicines Act to say this is a way of stopping manufacturing or halting prevalence. Clearly that hasn’t worked.”

Michael Lawrence, CRI’s expert in novel psychoactive substances, says the legislative sledge-hammer has created the dilemma worse. “Our method has led to this scenario of new medicines coming out so rapidly. We are in this scenario since of our manage regulation,” he mentioned. He factors to New Zealand, which regulated novel psychoactive substances for about 9 months. The experiment was controversial, with younger men and women queueing in the streets to acquire legal highs from a smaller amount of outlets (numerous head stores closed down rather than work inside of a regulated technique), but the new compounds on the market fell from 300-400 to about 100. Crucially, where items went wrong, hospitals could discover out what the patient had taken.

The Home Office stated that Britain had carried out a lot more than any other country to curb legal highs. It has introduced a forensic early warning system to pick up risky new substances on the industry and short-term drug orders to ban whole groups of substances quickly for a 12-month period whilst experts investigate. But the Residence Office minister for crime prevention, Norman Baker, into whose remit this falls, is well aware that this is not the whole solution. In December, he announced a evaluation panel, which is expected to report to him in the up coming couple of weeks.

“I am extremely concerned about the trade of these substances, which is why I commissioned a evaluation, drawing on the greatest brains in the country, to see how ideal we can tackle this challenge,” he mentioned. “The assessment panel is due to give me its report shortly.

“In the meantime it is well worth noting that we have in the Uk previously banned 350 substances and have been quicker to respond to this challenge than most other nations.

“Even so, I recognise there is much more to do, notably in schooling and prevention, which is why I have appointed this expert panel.”

Psychonauts explore unknown world of legal highs with themselves as lab rats

Drug users start injecting "legal highs"

“Bearing in mind the significant potential impact of new patterns of injection being recognized, the shut monitoring of synthetic cathinones use in Europe is obviously an crucial public health priority,” it explained.

“While most cathinone use requires both snorting the medication as a powder or oral use, a latest worrying phenomenon has emerged of synthetic cathinones becoming injected by some groups of drug users

“On the complete, reviews propose that injecting cathinone end users are primarily injectors of other drugs … who, for a assortment of causes, switch to cathinone injection or contain cathinones in their drug-making use of repertoire.

“In addition, there are reviews of long-term abstinent ex-opiate end users who have started to inject cathinones and constrained reviews of younger individuals starting their injecting job with cathinones.”

The yearly report stated there had been reviews of mephedrone injection in Britain.

“These included each experienced users of other drugs switching to mephedrone, and novice users who have by no means injected other medicines before,” it warned.

“Mephedrone customers had been reportedly younger than other groups of large-risk drug end users observed by drug solutions.”

It additional there was “increasing concern” about a new trend in the gay local community to inject the drugs at “chem sex” parties, in a practice know as “slamming”.

“Parties can final from around eight hrs up to three days with the participants usually engaging in risky sexual practices this kind of as not utilizing condoms and sharing a number of partners,” it explained.

“To date in Europe, this new practice has largely been documented between limited sub-groups of gay guys in London and a small quantity of French cities nonetheless, the likely exists, in this very mobile population, for it to grow to be much more widespread.”

Elsewhere in its European Drug Report 2013, the agency stated common mortality charge due to overdose of all drugs in Britain was 38.3 per million population, much more than twice the average for Europe at 17 per million.

Nonetheless drug deaths in this country are in decline, with the complete falling from two,569 in 2008 to two,250 in 2011.

“Most overdoses occur between men and women who have consumed several substances, and attributing causality is usually problematic,” the report mentioned.

“With the continuing release of new psychoactive substances on the drug industry, there is concern that new or obscure substances that have contributed to deaths could escape detection.”

The Residence Office launched a review of legal highs last yr to appear at how laws can be improved.

The Government banned two groups of psychoactive substances in December, the NBOMe and Benzofuran compounds.

Drug users start injecting "legal highs"

New legal highs on rise as United kingdom death rate twice Europe average

Cecilia Malmstrom, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, mentioned: “The EU Early Warning Technique, our initial line of defence towards emerging drugs, is coming below expanding stress as the variety and diversity of substances continue to rise sharply.”

In its European Drug report 2014, the EMCDDA stated the complete quantity of legal highs available across the continent has now soared to a lot more than 350 substances.

Some 651 sites promoting legal highs to Europeans were identified by the company as it warned the open sale of the designer drugs on the web has improved availability to distributors and buyers.

“The technologies to access these internet sites is increasingly being integrated into client software program, opening up these marketplaces to a lot more individuals,” the report explained.

“In addition, the open sale of ‘legal highs’ on the Web seems to have enhanced their availability to distributors and shoppers.”

The new legal highs and designer drugs are synthetic or naturally occurring psychoactive substances not controlled below worldwide law, made to mimic the effects of other medicines which have been banned.

They are often mislabelled as plant foods or investigation chemical compounds.

Legal highs are especially challenging to manage as producers, suppliers, retailers, website-hosting and payment-processing services can all be based in different countries, the EMCDDA explained.

The increasing use of anonymous on the web networks, often recognized as the “dark internet”, for the sale of designer medication to dealers and shoppers adds to the problems.

The rise of legal highs has produced it increasingly challenging to assess and recognize drug-induced or drug-related deaths, the EMCDDA said.

“Most overdoses take place amid people who have consumed a number of substances, and attributing causality is usually problematic,” the report stated.

“With the continuing release of new psychoactive substances on the drug market place, there is concern that new or obscure substances that have contributed to deaths may escape detection.”

It additional: “The higher potency of some synthetic substances additional complicates their detection, as they will be current only at really minimal concentrations in the blood.”

Among the 81 new legal highs recognized in 2013, 29 had been synthetic cannabinoids, substances made to recreate the results of cannabis. Yet another thirty compounds did not fit into any recognised group, the report said.

There had been 13 new substituted phenethylamines reported, seven synthetic cathinones, a tryptamine and a piperazine.

Legal highs are often produced in China or India but there are secret laboratories making the substances in Europe, the company explained.

The strength of designer medicines is triggering troubles for law enforcement agencies as properly, as little quantities of the substances can be converted into numerous doses, the report explained.

Ms Malmstrom explained: “Europe’s law enforcement bodies are more and more faced with the truth that modest, effortlessly transported packages of seemingly innocuous powders can acquire many 1000′s of person doses.”

In the Uk, the Home Workplace last yr launched a assessment of legal highs to seem at how the country’s laws can be enhanced.

Possibilities include the expansion of legislation to ensure police and law enforcement companies have better tailored powers.

The Government banned two groups of psychoactive substances in December, NBOMe and Benzofuran compounds , as class A and B medication respectively.

Heroin use and availability is in decline, the EMCDDA mentioned, with the amount of 1st-time entrants to specialist drug therapy for heroin issues falling from a peak of 59,000 in 2007 to 31,000 in 2012.

Heroin seized in 2012, 5 tonnes, was the lowest reported in the final decade.

Drug use stays one of the key leads to of mortality among younger folks in Europe, the report mentioned, with all around 6,100 overdose deaths reported in Europe in 2012, down from six,500 in 2011.

Estonia had the highest common mortality rate due to overdose at 191 per million, the company mentioned.

New legal highs on rise as United kingdom death rate twice Europe average

Festivals black out against legal highs

Bestival organiser Rob Da Financial institution informed The Telegraph that he wanted the festival to get behind the campaign soon after an attendee committed suicide soon after taking a legal high in 2012. “We can’t kid ourselves that drugs and legal highs are not going to be taken”, he said, “it’s element of the material of the festival. Nevertheless, we do want to get the message to people who could have been contemplating legal highs, not to.”

The campaign is the function of the Association of Independent Festivals and Angelus Foundation, a charity that aims to educate individuals about legal highs. Maryon Stewart founded Angelus soon after her daughter Hester died in 2009 from taking GBL, a sedative that has euphoric side effects, but can be lethal if mixed with alcohol. She says legal highs are “a enormous but hidden dilemma since youthful men and women are acting in ignorance and no-1 is measuring the harms.”

Survey information collected by Angelus in 2013 located that far more than a quarter of 16-24 12 months-olds polled thought that legal highs have been a safer choice to unlawful drugs, and 76 per cent of those had close friends who took legal highs.

So far, all of the proof about the consumption of legal highs at festivals has been anecdotal. Even so, nitrous oxide, otherwise identified as laughing gasoline or balloons, is 1 of the a lot more common legal highs at festivals. Utilised for numbing dental individuals, as well a lot nitrous oxide can result in death due to a lack of oxygen in the entire body. Angelus’s Jeremy Sare stated that his colleagues described “a sea of cannisters” at Glastonbury last year.

The majority of legal higher deaths, however, come about when alcohol is mixed with stimulants that mimic the likes of ecstasy, MDMA and cocaine. Regulators are struggling to maintain up with the speed at which new chemical variants are getting produced.

Rob Da Financial institution stressed that legal highs had only begun to effect festivals “quite recently”, but that there was a need to tackle them. “There will be data on our website and at the festival internet site. We hope we’ll be in a position to place people off legal highs”.

IN Pictures: GLASTONBURY 2013

Festivals black out against legal highs

Britain in a "race with chemists" in India and China generating "legal highs", minister says

“Many of these are actually really hazardous.”

He explained that it is “unhelpful” to describe the medicines as “legal highs”.

It comes as “legal high” merchants mentioned that they are setting up a trade association and known as on the Government to assist them regulate the business.

Mr Baker extra: “We’re in a race against the chemists of new substances getting produced nearly on a weekly basis in locations like China and India.

“They then come in right here and are inaccurately and unhelpfully known as legal highs – some of them are truly unlawful. They are certainly not necessarily risk-free and the word legal implies that they are protected. And individuals are consuming them and final yr I believe it was 68 individuals died, according to coroners reviews, from the ingestion of these substances.”

“My objective…is to minimise the harm from these substances to the public at huge,” Mr Baker mentioned.

Mr Baker has mentioned that he will defy an attempt by the European Union to regulate “legal highs”.

He explained that EU law-makers are not capable to cope with the “fast moving scene” about the thoughts-altering substances becoming offered on the net.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) mentioned deaths linked with the psychoactive substances jumped from 29 in 2011 to 52 in 2012, an 80 per cent rise. Final yr, it is believed that 68 men and women died due to the substances.

Even as not too long ago as 2007 the annual variety of deaths from the new synthetic drugs was in single figures.

Many of the so-referred to as legal highs – which give the consumer euphoric sensations equivalent to the drug Ecstasy – have been produced unlawful by the Home Workplace but the law struggles to hold pace with a proliferation of various kinds.

Synthetic medicines sold beneath the names Black Mamba and Mexxy were produced Class B drugs in 2012 and Theresa May, the House Secretary, authorised short-term bans on two other groups – Benzofury and NBOMe – in June.

Mephedrone, or miaow miaow, was made unlawful in 2010.

A boom in sites offering mind-altering substances by mail order for as minor as 10p a hit, and a network of large street suppliers, has created the United kingdom the legal medication capital of Europe, according to specialists.

Britain in a "race with chemists" in India and China generating "legal highs", minister says

Public overall health, one 12 months on: highs and lows for neighborhood government

How profitable have councils been in strengthening the well being of their residents? Photograph: Joe Wigdahl / Alamy/Alamy

Public well being became a neighborhood government obligation in April last yr for the very first time given that the 1970s. Councils took above commissioning services to assist folks quit smoking, get rid of bodyweight and tackle other important wellness concerns. But, a single yr on, what is been accomplished?

Guardian journalist Richard Vize spoke about the options connected with the move in an report final 12 months. He explained that even though acquiring to grips with council politics and processes will be tough, public overall health teams ought to discover the move to local government “a liberating knowledge”. He wrote: “Although NHS culture is hierarchical, centralised and inward seeking, neighborhood government is outward searching, community focused and rebellious.”

Nevertheless, councils came under fire from the British Healthcare Journal (BMJ) who explained they were diverting public wellness money for other use. The Regional Government Association (LGA) described this report as “completely misleading”, adding that paying ranges on public overall health remained consistent.

Here are your views on the highs and lows of the year, with public overall health now firmly in the neighborhood government remit.

What successes are there to shout about?

Public wellness is now at the heart of commissioning

– Joanne Roney is chief executive of Wakefield council.

Improving wellness and wellbeing is component of the local financial growth agenda

– Rob Walsh is chief executive of North East Lincolnshire council.

Councils are operating on some really wonderful projects

Southwark have just announced they are producing all their sports activities centres totally free they also do universal totally free college lunches. Get Match Birmingham is an interesting scheme as is Nicely London wellness champions which operates in a quantity of boroughs. Ipswich banned super powerful lagers and ciders.

– Edward Davie is communications and engagement office for the NSUN network for psychological health and and chair of Lambeth council’s overall health and adult social companies scrutiny committee

Our span of influence is have to better

We have brought other departments beneath public overall health, so community safety (e.g crime, anti-social behaviour, vulnerable communities) emergency planning (e.g floods and extreme weather, events and public order concerns), environmental health and regulatory solutions (e.g alcohol licensing, noise, pest, air quality and so forth) all now sit underneath public health. We lead on the intelligence function for the authority.

Asides from assimilating other solutions we have a considerably closer functioning relationship with colleagues in housing, transport, planning, rewards, children’s services and have started out lots of great initiatives.

– Tom Scanlon is director of public well being at Brighton &amp Hove city council.

Joined up working in London has been a good results

Boroughs have been joining up companies each inside of their organisations and with wider partners, and they have been implementing initiatives that give communities the tools and sources to address their own health wants.

Public health is turning out to be integrated into every facet of London nearby government, from housing and licensing to leisure and environmental overall health, and its position will only become more essential as councils look for to provide high quality companies with much less.

– Teresa O’Neill is executive member for well being at London Councils.

What perform is there to be completed?

Public well being resources are still so unfairly distributed

The greatest failure of the new public overall health program is that resources are so unfairly distributed. City of London, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, the country’s richest boroughs with some of the best existence expectancy, are obtaining by far the most public wellness cash per head.

City of London receives £192 per head, much more than double spots such as Lambeth, Manchester and Liverpool which have far larger levels of illness and deprivation.

This is compounded by the fact that the councils serving the poorest residents, and for that reason people with the highest rates of sick overall health, have had their general budgets disproportionately minimize. This signifies that it is tougher for these councils to tackle the pre-determinants of sick-health by supplying respectable housing, employment, leisure and training options.

Councils such as Lambeth have had their spending budget lower by 50% whilst fairly healthful and wealthy West Oxfordshire, which occurs to be David Cameron’s neighborhood council, has had a three% improve.

– Edward Davie

A challenge is the quantity of vacant director of public health posts

Provided nearby government’s new role in public overall health concerned the merger of two distinct cultures, it seems to have gone quite effectively so far. Currently a single sees councillors lining up with their directors of public overall health to argue the situation for pondering about the public wellness impacts of council policies usually, and we know that 72% of authorities say that Public Well being England, only a year outdated, is supporting them effectively. A challenge is the number of vacant director of public health posts – and whether that is a signal of a problem or lack of consideration by regional government.

– Ben Webpage is chief executive of Ipsos Mori.

The problems most often talked about by our members are the scale of financial cuts to council budgets, the influence of economic downturn and welfare modifications on people’s overall health, and considerations about getting in a position to recruit and retain the skilled workforce they require to do the job efficiently. About one in 4 director of public well being posts are at the moment filled by acting or interim arrangements and there are also higher ranges of vacancies in public overall health teams. Robust, stable public well being leadership is crucial if we are to accomplish the full likely of public well being moving into councils.

– Janet Atherton is president at Association of Directors of Public Health.

There are longer phrase problems about public overall health coaching and conditions of employment

I feel there are longer phrase problems about public wellness instruction, regional authority terms and circumstances of employment, and the willingness of medically experienced public well being experts to perform in such environments. I would also struggle to do this task in an upper tier authority – when a lot of actual public wellness sits in reduce tier, borough or unitary authorities – or where I had to go via yet another director to get to a chief executive, or did not have the very same budgetary management. I think if that were the situation, I may well search elsewhere.

– Tom Scanlon

• Public health: how landscape can increase the overall health of residents
• Councils have possibility to demonstrate effectiveness in public wellness
• Public health 2014: most significant topics for the year ahead

If you have a lot more thoughts to include then get in touch with sarah.marsh@theguardian.com or leave comments in the thread under.

Public overall health, one 12 months on: highs and lows for neighborhood government

Why MS sufferers like me need to have the highs and lows of unrealistic optimism | Peter Thompson

‘Four instances the typical dose of statins? What the hell? Make it eight instances, please.’ Photograph: Cultura/Rex

One more day, yet another bit of thrilling news about a medical breakthrough. For a a number of sclerosis patient like me, the course of a day can see you raised from a height of happiness and expectation at a headline to a minimal brought on by qualification and modest print. In some techniques, the best breakthrough would be a pill that protects one particular towards people highs and lows. Meanwhile one particular has to fall back on an capacity to study in between the lines, differentiate journalistic hyperbole from health care realism, and come to a conclusion that makes it possible for for hope but prepares for disappointment.

Today’s information is that specific statins, taken in higher dose, might assist to slow down the progress of MS in its later stages. At very first glance this seems like two marauding birds killed with one extremely cheap stone. As a 53-12 months-previous man who enjoys a sausage roll, I have been worrying more about my cholesterol amounts not too long ago than about the signs and symptoms of my MS, and right here comes a pill that guarantees to deal with both. All of a sudden, fears that I had about the side-results of statins are dissipated by the hopes that one particular has about the side-effects of statins. Exactly where just before I had rejected the idea of going on a drug like that each day for the rest of my life, now I can’t wait to get down to the GP to get place on the trial dose.

4 times the regular? What the hell? Make it eight occasions, please, and how does it match in with the additional vitamin D3 I am taking, and the additional folic acid and vitamin B12, and cod-liver oil by the spoonful, and all the other issues that have been suggested by healthcare personnel and friends?

But underneath all this optimistic clutching at straws there is the recognition that one has an sickness, an sickness that is not going to go away, that is possibly going to get worse and that – even if this new miracle remedy proves to be correct – will slow the shrinking of the brain only from .six% to .3% a 12 months. On the other hand, in no way have 3-thousandths of the trillions of neurons and nerve cells in my brain seemed so useful and worth preserving.

And this is the issue: the unrealistic optimism that is an essential portion of human character drives us to believe in miracle cures, regardless of whether they be statins, the lottery, or the spittle of a supposed messiah. Existence without the highs and lows of hope and dashed expectations would hardly be a existence really worth living.

When creating about my diagnosis in the Guardian some many years ago, I said that science was not my god, but it could be my salvation. That remains my position today, and I feel it is frequently the place of several folks with numerous various ailments and illnesses. Beneath the drugs and lotions and new-age quackery that our pains and aches lead us in the direction of, there is an undertow, an underpinning and an imagined certainty that – as with all those other ailments that were once so typical and are now so uncommon – ours too will a single day be a distant memory. Perhaps not to us, but, as Brecht when put it: to those who come later on.

Why MS sufferers like me need to have the highs and lows of unrealistic optimism | Peter Thompson

Minister warns in excess of the deadly threat of legal highs

In a broad-ranging interview, Mr Baker also informed how he had been briefed by MI5 chief Andrew Parker and accused political enemies of “maliciously” and wrongly claiming he would be denied entry to sensitive papers since of his book which recommended scientist Dr David Kelly could have been murdered.

He also described how he will tell Residence Secretary Theresa Might in private when he believes she is “wrong”.

On medicines, he explained some legal highs, synthetic drugs which can be bought online or in shops, could be more lethal than heroin of cocaine.

He mentioned: “I have initiated a overview of so-referred to as legal highs which are a certain dilemma at the second and turning out to be far more significant than some of the standard medicines in many techniques,” he extra.

“So then young individuals sometimes conclude wrongly that it’s safe because they believe, not unreasonably in some ways, that if it was unsafe it would have been banned.

“So youthful men and women are occasionally much less on their guard in terms of taking these new substances than they are for long-established substances like heroin, cocaine or cannabis.

“And yet in some methods it can be a lot more dangerous since we really do not know what necessarily they are going to do and younger folks really don’t know what they are going to do.”

Mr Baker extra: “There is not a history of health-related evaluation to give us a information base.”

Minister warns in excess of the deadly threat of legal highs