UK - Plymouth legal high shop criticised by drug rehabilitation centre

[edgarshade]

BBC News

27 January 2012 Last updated at 12:43

A shop which sells legal highs in Devon has been criticised by a drug rehabilitation centre. A Dam Good Head Shop, situated opposite HM Customs and a Plymouth police station, sells products to over-18s. Jeremy Pritchard, of the Harbour Centre, said: "They're chemicals that are being sold to people with no testing. They can't be safe." Steve Beard, manager of the shop, said: "We're a legitimate business, in a legitimate trade."

But Mr Pritchard said: "I call them toxic highs. They're dangerous drugs; they're only legal because the chemical composition of them has been changed slightly from those that are illegal. "We have seen clients of ours who have taken these psychoactive substances thinking that they are safe. "And we've had cases that have gone to Derriford hospital or a psychiatric hospital, because they don't know what they're taking."

In a statement, the Home Office said: "The UK is leading the way in cracking down on legal highs by outlawing not just individual drugs, but whole families of related substances that have the potential to cause harm."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-16756754

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

The shop is simply supplying a demand. Drug distribution needs to be looked at in an economic fashion, rather than with morals and emotion.