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Leeds councillor asks for ban on legal high shops

A local councillor in Leeds has called for a ban to be placed on shops selling controversial legal highs. Councillor Mick Coulson is a member of a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers inherent in legal high drugs and wants the authorities to be given greater powers to act against shops – known as head shops ‒ selling the substances.

Speaking about these head shops, Mr Coulson explained: “We now have five in Leeds and it’s a growing concern. I would say we have a problem, or we are going to get one unless we can get some proper legal controls. I think we would all like to see a ban on this type of shop.”

The use of legal highs, although difficult to assess accurately, is known to have become widespread. The first legal high to be introduced was mephedrone ‒ street name meow meow or M-Cat ‒ which was introduced into the party scene within the last ten years. A survey carried out in 2011 discovered that 8.2% of British people have used psychoactive substances.

West Yorkshire Police’s drug coordinator, Bryan Dent, has admitted that the authorities are behind in dealing with the sales of legal highs. The process is made more difficult by producers continually altering the chemical ingredients they use in each product as a means of circumventing the law.

Whilst there have as yet been no deaths in Leeds attributed to the use of legal highs, the police have successfully prosecuted traders in two landmark cases.

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