Of all recreational drugs in circulation today, legal highs and volatile substances are some of the most commonly used by people of ALL ages. The word ‘legal’ doesn’t mean it is. It means that the raw ingredients used to manufacture the drug, such as research chemicals, plant food, bath crystals or pond cleaner are legal to buy. Once manufactured and mixed with other ingredients they become a lethal combination. Nor does the “legal” label mean that it’s certified, pure or tested. It simply means it hasn’t been classified as a dangerous drug.
Each time something is banned a number of new products emerge on the market. The number of new substances coming into the country is around 75 to 100 each year, compared with only a few five years ago.
Users, especially young people, truly believe that these substances are harmless because they hide behind the label of ‘legal highs’. There are a vast amount of websites that will happily supply different types of legal highs to anyone without giving health warnings.
Whilst the long and short term effects of volatile substance abuse are unknown, many have caused deaths or caused horrific side effects. The addiction risks of substance abuse are still unknown and the interaction of these chemicals and other substances is unknown. The number of recorded deaths as a direct result of legal high abuse was 144 people from 2014 to September 2016. It is believed the actual number is higher where some deaths have been recorded as suicide or accidental.
The Lisbon-based European monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction says nearly 10% of 15 to 24 year-olds in Britain have used former ‘legal highs’, twice the European average of 5% and more than 40 deaths were linked to a group of now-banned legal highs in 2010, eight times as many as the previous year.
In May 2016 a blanket ban on legal highs came into force in the UK known as the ‘Psychoactive Substances Act’. The aim of the ban is to protect young people by banning any production, supply and importation or exportation for human consumption.
Some known facts about volatile substance abuse are:
• VSA kills on average one person every week in the UK.
• In 2009 in 67% of VSA deaths there was no evidence of previous abuse.
• In 2009 5 deaths were due to the non-medical use of Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas).
• In 2009 46 deaths were due to Helium—these figures are not included in the Official VSA Report.
• From 2000-2009 the average annual fatality rate was 54.
• The youngest person to die from VSA was a 7 year old—the oldest was an 85 year old.
• Butane lighter refills continue to claim the most lives – linked to 74% of all VSA deaths.
• Sniffing itself is not illegal therefore it is easy for a user to argue that they are doing nothing wrong.
• The average home contains over 50 products that can be abused.
• Those who abuse these substances can be of any age, or come from any social, cultural or ethnic background.
Some known facts around the effects VSA has upon health;
• VSA can damage all internal organs.
• VSA is a powerful hallucinogenic which means people can put themselves at risk leading to tragic accidents.
• VSA can create a high in 15-30 seconds, quickly leading to a mind altering state.
• VSA does not show up in any non-invasive drug testing.
Some known facts around the effects VSA has upon crime;
• Crimes committed whilst high on these substances include murder, rape, assault, theft and vandalism.
• The majority of drug users have admitted that VSA was their “stepping stone” to illegal drugs
‘Evolve – Tackling Substance Abuse in the Community’, is a small, not-for-profit organisation working with young people and adults to provide preventative education, early intervention, counselling, family support and training for professionals in relation to the abuse of former legal highs, especially volatile substances.
Evolve is based in the North West of England however it is a national charity covering the whole of the UK. In its first year Alison Hodgson, CEO of Evolve, worked with 3,928 young people and adults, 7,957 in its second year and has exceeded all expectations in 2015 -16 by engaging with a further 17,033 young people and adults. To date Evolve has worked with over 42,000 young people and adults.
Much of this work has been preventative education and support and a lot has been life-changing. Evolve is the only organisation providing such outreach in the north of England so clearly more needs to be done and more parents need to make themselves aware of these choices that their children are having to deal with on a very regular basis!
To find out more information about volatile substance abuse and how you can support Evolve further visit the website www.evolvenorthwest.com
There is also further information about psychoactive substances on the government website: www.gov.uk/government/collections/psychoactive-substances-bill-2015