Legal highs taken by one in five university students

A new survey has discovered that one in five students starting university in the last month has tried a legal high drug.

The survey was conducted amongst new students attending a southern England university. 19% of the respondents said they had tried one of the many legal high drugs available, while 36% admitted that they had been offered such drugs. A massive 61% stated that they knew someone who had taken legal high drugs.

More than 80 new legal high drugs, also known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), have appeared within the EU during the last year. When the authorities identify and subsequently ban a particular legal high drug, the recipe is simply altered and put back onto the market. Legal high drugs include stimulants, such as Pink Panther and Clockwork Orange, and have the potential to be four times more powerful than the strongest cannabis.

Maryon Stewart, founder of the Angelus Foundation, is eager to educate parents and students about the dangers of legal highs. She said: “There is no group more vulnerable to exposure to legal highs than students. Naturally, many take the opportunity to try new experiences and our survey shows one in four have already taken a legal high. Their prevalence appears to be rife. This revelation will be deeply worrying to many parents.”

The UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates that more than 670,000 people in the UK aged between 15 and 24 have tried various NPS drugs, which makes the UK the largest consumer of legal highs in Europe.