Health services under pressure as a result of legal highs

Doctors are warning that health services are under pressure due to the increased use of legal high drugs.

Legal highs, also known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), are drugs that are legally available for sale in shops throughout the UK that stimulate the body and mind and can alter the mood of the user. They are alleged to have caused more deaths in the country than the class A drug, heroin.

It seems that almost every week a new legal high comes onto the European market, with hospitals buckling under the strain of treating people who have used them. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) reported that there was a 32% increase in the number of people attending treatment centres for problems associated with club drugs between 2011-12 and 2012-13.

One of the co-authors of the RCP report, Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, said: “Our current drug services were designed to deal with the drugs and dangers of the last decade ‒ such as heroin and crack ‒ and while it is important that this work continues, services now need to widen their front door and adapt to address the serious harms that club drug and NPS users are experiencing.”

It is believed that many users in need of treatment shy away from attending help centres, as they are viewed as being for heroin or other hard-drug users. The report authors want legal high treatment to be put on the same footing as that for opiate and alcohol abuse.