Sheffield '˜legal high' users warned they could be jailed

The Psychoactive Substances Act comes in to force at midnight tonight, meaning so-called legal Highs will no longer be legal to produced, distributed or imported.

South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings , who has been leading on a campaign to raise awareness to the dangers of legal highs, welcomed the ban.

He said: “In recent years the availability of Legal Highs or psychoactive substances has caused growing concern.

“Young people in particular assumed that because they were legal they were also harmless and too many have suffered as a result. 
“This was because no one ever knew what the chemical substances were in what they were swallowing.

“I am pleased that from May 26 legal highs will become illegal highs. This offers the protection our young people in particular need.”

So called legal highs are psychoactive substances that mimic the effects of illegal drugs like cannabis, cocaine and heroin but are produced from chemicals that are un-licenced and dangerous to users.

These substances were dubbed legal highs because the chemical build of them was not ill-legal and if one chemical became illegal – the ingredients were changed to make them legal again.

This will now change as the sychoactive Substance Act states: “For the purposes of this act a substance produces a psychoactive effect in a person if, by stimulating or depressing

the person’s central nervous system, it affects the person’s mental functioning or emotionalstate.”

said:

Anyone needs further help or advice can visit www.illlegalhighs.co.uk

Anyone caught breaking the law by producing, distributing or importing legal highs could receive a prison sentence for up to seven years.