Government study to quiz legal high users on ill-effects

The Government’s advisory group on drugs is to investigate the experience of hospital emergency departments & treating patients suffering ill-effects from using head shop substances, as well as question users of the legal highs.

The move is part of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) plans to examine types of specifically psychoactive substances being sold in head shops.

The NACD investigation comes as the Government drives ahead with a planned second wave of head shop bans later this year, which will include substances not under the Misuse of Drugs Act but which have psychoactive effects.

Head shop psychoactive items which are currently not subject to legal controls include Divine Mint (a substance similar to LSD) as well as hallucinogenic cacti, like peyote.

The NACD review will look at what the psychoactive products in head shops are supposed to contain on the basis of their labelling and the actual chemical content of the substance.

A key part of the research will be tracking the effects on patients who attended emergency departments after taking head shop highs.

Emergency departments will be asked to supply details of cases where there were side-effects as a result of using a head shop products between July 2009 and June 2010.

Researchers will look at the age, gender and county of users, what month they attended the hospital and what they consumed.

Emergency units will also be asked whether affected users had consumed other drugs with the product as well as what their medical symptoms were.

Finally, emergency department records will be checked to see if legal high users were admitted to hospital, were sent home or remained ill in the long term.

The Government advisory group wants "information in relation to the experience of A&E units in dealing with individuals who have consumed such products as well as evidence that can link the products consumed to the actual effects on the user", according to a tender advertising the review.

Users of head shop hallucinogenic products will also be queried in the research in a number of focus groups in a bid to identify any ill effects on their health.

It is expected that users will be interviewed about the head shop products they have used, the expected effects of the legal highs as well as the preferred place or source of purchase.

The NACD commissioned research will be completed by August.

Source: Juno McEnroe, The Irish Examiner, 27/05/2010