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Concern over legal high use grows in Wales

According to Public Health Wales, the country has seen a “substantial escalation” in legal high use since 2010, with new psychoactive substances (NPS) representing a significant risk. A campaign has now been launched by Sands Cymru, Dash and Drugaid Cymru in an effort to address the issue.

The chief executive of Sands Cymru, Ifor Glyn, said: “This is not a problem that’s going to go away anytime soon,” adding that the recent blanket ban proposal by the government will not bring a stop to the spread of legal highs.

Major concerns for people in Wales include a lack of understanding about legal high ingredients, how they affect the body, and just how powerful they can be. Several deaths have occurred in Wales as a result of legal high drugs; for example, in February a Cardiff father of three, Thaker Hafid, took a legal high that produced effects five times stronger than heroin and subsequently died. Another man was hospitalised after taking MMB-CHMINACA, which is thought to have been responsible for six fatalities throughout Europe since 2014.

The legal high campaign, which is being launched in Neath Port Talbot, will offer briefings throughout Wales and hopes to have reached more than 8,000 people by the end of the year.

Public Health Wales has also issued a warning about the new psychoactive substance MMB-CHMINACA, which has the potential to be highly dangerous.

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