Regulatory system to deal with legal highs 'can't cope'

A number of legal highs are being banned over fears they are dangerous.

Following advice from experts, the government says mexxy and black mamba will be classified in the same way as cannabis.

As class B substances, users will face heavy fines and up to five years in prison while suppliers could be jailed for up to 14 years.

Doctor Owen Bowden-Jones is a consultant psychiatrist and runs Club Drug Clinic based at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital.

Nine people have been hospitalised after taking annihilation

He said: "The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has obviously done a standard scientific assessment of these drugs and recommended they be banned.

"I think for individual substances, if there is evidence it is harmful, then absolutely the message should get out that it might be dangerous.

"However, the problem we've got is there are so many new substances coming out on the market, it's hard for the regulatory system to keep up."

According to a report in April 2012 by the EU's drug agency, new legal highs and other synthetic drugs are appearing on the market at the rate of one a week.

Mexxy is sold as an alternative to ketamine and was the first drug to be banned temporarily under new government powers.

It's after the bodies of two people were found in Leicester and Melton Mowbray on separate days in February.

"Some of the legal highs are similar to each other in terms of chemical structure," added Dr Owen Bowden-Jones.

"You can sometimes tell if one is harmful others might be. But the sheer number of new legal highs on the market makes it difficult to understand how dangerous they are."