Legal highs

This article was written by a young person from Wigan.

This isn’t going to be the usual information about the harm of illegal drugs. This is something completely different…but just as dangerous. This article is going to tell you about legal highs.

You may not know what legal highs actually are, even if you have heard about them. They are designed to mimic the effects of illegal Class A, B and C drugs, such as cocaine.

Head shops’ and websites can legally sell them as they are, though advertise them as ‘not for human consumption’. These legal highs can be made up of chemicals (such as those used to treat plants) or modified versions of illegal drugs. This means that legal highs can sometimes be more dangerous than illegal drugs as they have nearly always been tampered with.

"They can be addictive but they're not as expensive or dangerous as illegal drugs" (young person).

This is a misconception. They can be just as dangerous.

Types of legal highs

250 legal highs have been banned by government already but newly modified versions keep popping up constantly. They can be sold under a variety of names and the packets do not name the ingredients. So how can you be aware of what you are taking?

In some cases, they can be very strong and made from chemicals that should not be put into your body. The ingredients in legal highs are changed all the time to dodge the law (as one batch of ingredients becomes illegal another one is created), so even if you’ve taken something before and been OK, what you had last time will not be the same as what you may get this time.

Fact: It is legal to possess legal highs, but is illegal to sell for human consumption. If the high you are found with has proven elements of illegal drugs in, you can be arrested.

Legal highs can be sold as pills, powder, liquid, capsules, seeds or crystals. These are not tested for safety like other drugs. This means that no one is sure of the long term effects of legal highs. We do know that some side effects of taking legal highs can be: nose bleeds, aggression, paranoia, blurred vision, nightmares, chest pains, nausea - the list is endless.

Fact: Legal highs, in some cases have killed people instantly!

If any of your friends take legal highs and become very ill, always get them to a hospital and be honest about what they have taken.

REMEMBER: It is OK to be different from your mates and keep yourself safe. Never feel pressured into taking anything your mates have.

Here’s what local young people had to say about legal highs:

‘There are no good points about trying legal highs. You don’t know what’s in them and you risk death. Some of my friends have tried them and it made them feel sick and paranoid and they thought they were going to die! In one case it ended in them being hospitalised and they took days to recover.’

‘A friend said they felt more confident but then passed out on a couch.’

‘A friend tried them and said it made her feel horrible.’

‘It made me feel bad and I don’t think I’d know what to do if myself or a friend had a bad experience with it.

‘Legal highs are bad because they haven’t been tested by the Government.’

‘The good points are they are legal but the bad points are they are worse for you!’

Useful websites

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