Legal high deaths 'tip of iceberg', says medical expert

Deaths linked to legal highs may just be the first signs of the damage they do, according to a medical expert.

In total 43 people in the UK died after taking now-outlawed methcathinones in 2010, the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths said.

This compared with five deaths in 2009, its report said.

But Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, founder of the Club Drug Clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said: "We may just be seeing the tip of the iceberg."