‘Legal highs’ seized in town shop raid

Nottinghamshire County Council has seized hundreds of packs of ‘legal highs’ following a raid on a Mansfield shop.

Officers seized the untested drugs which are often branded and labelled which fool businesses and customers into believing that they are safe to sell and consume on Thursday.

Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle, Chair of the County Council’s Community Safety Committee said: “We carried out this raid in response to complaints from local people about the sale of such substances at this Mansfield shop.”

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The ‘legal highs’ were seized by the Council’s Trading Standards team with the assistance of Nottinghamshire Police after they were deemed unsafe after receiving information from the public.

The packets seized range from 0.5g to 3g and were a mixture of vegetable material powders and tablets and were labelled with names such as Herbal Haze and El Blanco.

Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle said: “People can be fooled by their bright packaging which makes them look like harmless sweets and their availability in a local shop so it’s important we clamp down on sellers.”

“People taking so called ‘legal highs’ are risking their life because they often contain a cocktail of chemicals that have never been tested or used for human consumption.”

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CRI are a leading charity in regard to legal highs and specialise in helping people make positive changes in their lives. They warn people of the dangers of legal highs: ‘These new psychoactive substances can be up to 10,000 times stronger than traditional drugs, meaning a tiny amount could trigger an extreme psychoactive response.’

The seizure follows raids across Nottinghamshire over the last couple of months, with successful raids in un-named Broxtowe and Bassetlaw shops recently.

‘Legal Highs’ have been the subject of great deabte over recent months and national reports have found that addiction, anti-social behaviour, violence, burglary and even death are possible side effects.

The last recorded figures for deaths involving ‘legal highs’ by the Office for National Statistics show a sharp increase from 29 deaths in 2011 to 52 deaths in 2012.

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The Government is expected to release findings of a report into new pyschoactive substances later this month.

Anyone with information about the sale of new psychoactive substances in their area should call Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Are ‘legal highs’ a bit of fun and no worse than cigarettes or booze - or should they be banned completely? To send us your comments CLICK HERE