Shropshire highlights legal high dangers

Legal high drugs may be facing a blanket ban as part of a government crackdown after Shropshire Council showed how dangerous the substances can be.

The move has been welcomed by Shropshire parents and residents, who want the current laws on selling dangerous substances tightened up for shops in their areas. The home secretary, Theresa May, claimed that a blanket ban on legal highs, such as that already in place in Ireland, is one of two important changes being looked at by the government.

Mrs May said: “A couple of proposals have come out and we are looking to work on a blanket ban based on the sort Ireland has to make enforcement easier. The problem is we can ban a substance and the people making it then slightly tweak the compound, and because we have banned that compound the next set is not covered by that ban. So we are looking at a different approach based on the impact they have on the brain.”

She further claimed that the government had already been aware of the potential dangers of legal highs when it came to power, implementing temporary banning orders to enable authorities to act more quickly and on their own initiative rather than waiting for expert opinions.

Shropshire Council decided to highlight the dangers of legal highs following the circulation of 4,4-DMAR, a legal high that has been present in the bodies of more than 20 fatalities in Northern Ireland.