‘Legal highs’ are usually sold as powders, pills, smoking mixtures, liquids, capsules, or on perforated tabs.

The powders can range from white to brown to yellow in colour and from flour-like to little crystals in consistency. The pills and capsules can range widely in size, shape and colour.

The smoking mixtures tend to come in colourful packaging, often with labels describing the contents as incense or herbal smoking mixture, and the contents look like dried herbs, vegetable matter or plant cuttings. It’s common for synthetic cannabinoids to be added to the dried herbs, vegetable matter or plant cuttings to make a smoking mixture.’

The packaging may describe a list of ingredients but you cannot be sure that this is what the product will contain. It’s likely designed to get your attention using a catchy brand name and bright colours.

‘Legal highs’ that come as powders, pills or capsules tend to be snorted or swallowed, while ‘legal high’ smoking mixtures are either smoked in a ‘joint’/’spliff’ or by using a pipe.

There have been reports of some people injecting certain ‘legal highs’. Injecting any drug, including ‘legal highs’, is particularly dangerous as a drug is more likely to reach harmful or fatal levels by this route. Also, the veins may be damaged by the injecting process and an abscess or blood clot may develop, which can then cause further serious health problems like infection of the blood or heart problems.

A number of these injection-related effects can lead to serious local scarring and can be disabling or even fatal. Sharing injecting equipment such as needles or syringes, runs the additional risks of catching or spreading viruses such as HIV or hepatitis C.

What are the effects of ‘legal highs’?

The main effects of almost all ‘psychoactive’ drugs, including ‘legal highs’, can be described using three main categories:

• stimulants (like mephedrone and naphyrone which are now banned)
• ‘downers’ or sedatives (like synthetic cannabinoids which are now banned)
• psychedelics or hallucinogens (like NBOMe drugs which are now banned)

Whilst drugs in each of the categories will have similarities in the kinds of effects they produce, they will have widely different strengths and effects on different people.

• Stimulant ‘legal highs’ act like amphetamines (‘speed’), cocaine, or ecstasy, in that they can make you feel energised, physically active, fast-thinking, very chatty and euphoric.
• ‘Downer’ or sedative ‘legal highs’ act similarly to cannabis, benzodiazepines (drugs like diazepam or Valium), or GHB/GBL, in that they can make you feel euphoric, relaxed or sleepy.
• Psychedelic or hallucinogenic ‘legal highs’ act like LSD, magic mushrooms, ketamine and methoxetamine. They create altered perceptions and can make you hallucinate (seeing and/or hearing things that aren’t there). They can induce feelings of euphoria, warmth, ‘enlightenment’ and being detached from the world around. Some psychedelic drugs create strong dissociative effects, which make you feel like your mind and body are separated.

What are the risks of ‘legal highs’?

Just the fact that a substance is sold as ‘legal’ doesn’t mean that it’s safe or legal. You can’t really be sure of what’s in a ‘legal high’ that you’ve bought, or been given, or what effect it’s likely to have on you or your friends.

Many of these risks are increased if the ‘legal high’ is combined with alcohol or with another psychoactive drug. There have been cases of death too.

The three main categories of drugs do not detail every reported risk of every single ‘legal high’. In fact, for many ‘legal highs’, there has been little or no useful research into the short or long-term risks from human consumption. Drugs including ‘legal highs’ will have widely different strengths and effects on different people. You can become addicted too.

• Stimulant ‘legal highs’ which act like amphetamines (‘speed’, mephedrone, naphyrone), cocaine or ecstasy can make you feel overconfident and disinhibited, induce feelings of anxiety, panic, confusion, paranoia, and even cause psychosis, which can lead you to put your own safety at risk. This type of drugs can put a strain on your heart and nervous system. They may give your immune system a battering so you might get more colds, flu and sore throats. You may feel quite low for a while after you’ve stopped using them.
• ‘Downer’ or sedative ‘legal highs’ similar to cannabis, benzodiazepines (drugs like diazepam or Valium), or GHB/GBL, can reduce inhibitions and concentration, slow down your reactions and make you feel lethargic, forgetful or physically unsteady, placing you at risk of accidents. This type of drugs can also cause unconsciousness, coma and death, particularly when mixed with alcohol and/or with other ‘downer’ drugs. Some people feel very anxious soon after they stop taking ‘downers’, and if a severe withdrawal syndrome develops in heavy drug users, it can be particularly dangerous and may need medical treatment.
• Psychedelic or hallucinogenic ‘legal highs’ which act like LSD, magic mushrooms, ketamine and methoxetamine can cause confusion, panics and strong hallucinatory reactions (‘bad trips’), and their effects can make you behave erratically and put your own safety at serious risk – including from self-harm. Some psychedelic drugs create strong dissociative effects, which make you feel like your mind and body are separated. Both of which can interference with your judgement, which could put you at risk of acting carelessly or dangerously, and of hurting yourself, particularly in an unsafe environment.

With illegal drugs, like cocaine, it is not unusual for the drug to be cut to add extra bulk so that the dealer can make more money.

However, when you buy ‘legal highs’, you can never be sure that what you are buying is what it is claimed to be either. Even if the packaging of a ‘legal high’ describes a list of ingredients, you cannot be sure that it contains the same substances.

Forensic testing of ‘legal highs’ has shown that they can contain different substances to those expected, or mixtures of different substances and even banned drugs which are illegal to possess. This means that you could end up taking a ‘legal high’ which has stronger or different effects and risks than you expected, or even be caught with an illegal drug.

Can you get addicted to ‘legal highs’?

‘Legal highs’ that have the same effects as addictive drugs like cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines can potentially get you hooked too.

Most stimulant and sedative drugs used recreationally have turned out to be addictive to some degree. So the regular use of ‘legal highs’, particularly those with sedative or stimulant effects, could potentially lead to a compulsion to use or even a risk of withdrawal symptoms when you stop using them.

Some people feel very anxious soon after they stop taking ‘downer’ type drugs. If a severe ‘downer’ withdrawal syndrome develops in a heavy drug userit can be particularly dangerous and the person affected may need medical treatment.

Are ‘legal highs’ illegal?

Just the fact that someone claims that a substance is “legal” doesn’t mean that it’s safe or legal. Possessing or supplying (includes giving to a friend) a ‘legal high’ that contains a banned drug is an offence.

There are many substances that were formally ‘legal highs’ that are now banned drugs in the UK.

‘Legal highs’ often contain more than one chemical, or not the same ingredients in samples of a same brand. So you cannot rely on a brand of ‘legal high’ that you or someone you know have used to be safe or legal because the actual contents can vary greatly. Basically, you can’t really be sure of what’s in a ‘legal high’ that you’ve bought, or been given, or what effect it’s likely to have on you or your friends.

Did you know?

Like drink-driving, drug-driving including after using ‘legal highs’, is illegal because it puts your own and other people’s safety at risk on the roads – with some ‘legal highs’ you could still be unfit to drive after the day you have used them. You can get a heavy fine, be disqualified from driving or even go to prison for drug-driving.