Walsall sees police seize hundreds of legal highs

Police raiding shops in Walsall have seized hundreds of legal high drugs in anticipation of a change in the law set to come into force in the spring.

In a joint operation carried out last Thursday between West Midlands Police, Walsall Council and Trading Standards, 228 legal highs − also known as new psychoactive substances (NPS) − were seized. The raid was the first of its kind in the area and covered 70 shops throughout the West Midlands.

Police have announced that they suspected 51 of the shops of selling the dangerous substances and had other intelligence to suggest that another 19 could potentially have been offered legal highs to sell in their premises. The raid resulted in the seizure of 40 different legal highs, with 20 of these being taken off shelves in the Sandwell area.

Chief Inspector Simon Inglis, the leader of the West Midlands Police drug force, said: “This operation shows people that West Midlands Police and council Trading Standards units are not prepared to wait until the new legislation is introduced in order to intervene and prevent harm. We are acting now because lives depend on it. Too many people have suffered significant harm up and down the country for us to wait for it to occur here.”

The new legislation, due in April, will make the new psychoactive substances illegal. One of the objectives of the West Midlands raids was to raise awareness of the forthcoming legislation and its penalties among shopkeepers.