Legal high drugs are getting stronger, new investigation discovers

An investigation carried out by BBC Wales has discovered that legal high drugs are getting stronger and that some of the substances can be more addictive than some illegal drugs.

The synthetic legal highs, which often replicate the effects of taking amphetamines, heroin and cannabis, are available to buy online and in high street shops. Due to the increasing concern about the danger of legal highs, both mephedrone and benzofuran have been made illegal; however, new compounds are continually being created.

Josie Smith of Wedinos, the Welsh drug testing agency, said: “What we have found, certainly in the past year, is an increase in the strength of NPS [new psychoactive substances] drugs, not only the range of NPS that’s on the market, but some of the substances. They have addiction potential far higher than some of the controlled substances.”

Wales has seen a 20-fold increase in the number of incidents in which legal high drugs have featured. In 2012 only 18 incidents were recorded; this number rose to 371 in 2014. A councillor from Morriston in Swansea, Andrea Lewis, commented that legal highs have caused the most anti-social behaviour in her area, where users have exhibited erratic behaviour such as running out into oncoming traffic.

Doctors have also registered concern that users will not only experience mental problems through legal high use but also physical issues, such as heart attacks in people who would not normally be expected to be at risk from such conditions.