Legal high 'scars' woman's face

Mikaila Tyhurst from Crumpsall in Manchester shows the effects that legal high GBL can have.

The picture on the left shows her at age 18, the other is Mikaila today at 22 after being addicted to the substance.

This week the government's launched a poster campaign aimed at clubbers to highlight the dangers of the "rave drug".

They say they have plans to ban GBL, or liquid ecstasy as it's also known, by the end of the year making it a Class C drug like ketamine.

Critics say it's all taken too long.

Mikaila's tried to kick her addiction a few times and is now in a detox clinic.

"I don't want to live a life like that and if I carry on much longer I won't have a life."

She says she started taking GBL when she was 18.

"I used to have lovely hair. Now I haven't got any. I had nice straight white teeth and I knocked them all out.

"I was bumped and scarred, my eyes were all swollen, I had liver failure. I don't look like the same person. I look about 50."

Dependency

GBL is extremely addictive and makes users feel euphoric, but can also cause many unpleasant effects including unconsciousness, muscle spasms and vomiting.

Kicking the habit isn't easy either, with extreme anxiety, nausea and hallucinations all possible.

Mikaila was introduced to the drug by her ex-boyfriend and says she took it to try to forget her problems.

"You forget all the bad things that are going through your mind, but once you come round again it all comes back, so you take more to get rid of it again.

"If I didn't get it I used to get shakes and sweats."

Mikaila says that after wrecking her health and family relationships she is now determined to give up GBL for the sake of her four-year-old daughter, (who lives with Mikaila's mother).

"It's not fair on her. What has she done to deserve that? if she turned out like that it'd kill me.

"If I carry on, by the time she's six or seven, will she have a mum left?"