Deaths linked to legal highs could surpass those related to heroin use within just two years, a new report by a think-tank will say.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in Britain is to release a report this week calling for more to be done to combat the drugs, known as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), while also calling for a "treatment tax" on alcohol.
Legal highs were linked to 97 deaths in 2012 and hospital admissions rose by 56% between 2009-12 in Britain, according to new CSJ data. The think-tank estimates that on current trends, deaths related to legal highs could be higher than heroin by 2016 — at around 400 deaths a year.
Drugs such as meow meow and Benzo Fury have been outlawed by the UK government but other substances, such as alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT) are still legal and new drugs flood the market quicker than they can be banned. CSJ is asking police to close so-called "head-shops" which sell NPS, of which they estimate there are around 250 in Britain.
And the report will brand the government’s prevention programme FRANK "shamefully inadequate". Meanwhile, the think-tank calls for a "treatment tax" to be added to off-licence alcohol sales to fund rehabilitation for people with drug and alcohol addictions, with a penny per unit levy funding recovery services costing £1.1bn (€1.3bn) in the next five years.
Source: Scott D’Arcy, Irish Examiner, 18/08/14
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