Britain | Drugs policy

Illegal highs

Critics say banning “legal highs” will just force them underground

|NEWCASTLE

GLASSY-EYED young men stumbling through the streets is not an unusual sight in Newcastle, a city well known for its partying. But in recent years an increasing number have been worse for wear due to “legal highs”—drugs freely available in so-called “head shops”, newsagents and takeaways, which mimic the effects of illicit narcotics while falling outside current drugs laws. After May 26th, however, the government is hoping that will change, as it has passed the Psychoactive Substances Act banning such drugs and giving authorities the power to imprison suppliers for up to seven years. Like many drugs laws, it has proved controversial.

According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), an EU agency, the use of legal highs, also called new psychoactive substances (NPS), has increased greatly across Europe, with two original substances detected every week. The north-east of England has felt the brunt of it. It has the highest death rate from drug misuse in England, nearly three times that of London. Newcastle has the country’s highest proportion of people accessing drug-treatment services for addiction to NPS, accounting for one in every three people seeking help. Legal highs have changed the fabric of the city, say local politicians and charities: begging and petty crime has become more prevalent as users try to feed their addiction.

The number of deaths is still low. Heroin and cocaine killed 952 and 247 people respectively in England and Wales last year. In 2014, 82 people died from NPS use, more than triple the number in 2009. Ambulance services in the North East had 263 callouts in January alone linked to NPS use—more than eight incidents per day.

In its annual report last month, the EMCDDA questioned the efficacy of any laws banning legal highs. Many experts agree. The ban may dissuade some casual users who were attracted to the “legal” status of NPS, reckons Adele Irving of Northumbria University. But she says it will not greatly decrease use. The government’s former drugs tsar, David Nutt, has gone further, calling the law “a completely nonsense piece of legislation”. Deaths from NPS will increase, he predicts.

Ireland introduced its own ban in 2010 and, in the first five years following its introduction, saw just four successful prosecutions against shops selling synthetic drugs. In the same period, use by 15- to 24-year-olds rose by six percentage points. Activists in Britain say that, by forcing the closure of head shops, the new law will cause sales to migrate to street-corner dealers, who also offer harder drugs.

Some social workers believe that NPS could have been managed better had a ban been enacted two years ago, when synthetic drugs were little known among the general population. The new law is coming too late, says Ollie Batchelor of Changing Lives, a Newcastle charity. Now people are addicted, they will find the drugs, whether they are legal or not, he says. Mr Batchelor agrees something must be done, since NPS users become more addicted and more unpredictable in their behaviour than many other drug users. But few charity workers like him believe crude legislation is the answer.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Illegal highs"

A nuclear nightmare: Kim Jong Un’s growing arsenal

From the May 28th 2016 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

The future of Drax, Britain’s largest power plant

From coal to wood to carbon capture and storage?

A new hate-crime law in Scotland causes widespread concern

Transgender identity is protected; biological sex is not


Britain’s kings of sourdough

The rapid rise of a firm that makes bread very slowly