Drugs Charities Call Upon Party Leaders to Take Action Against Legal Highs

Via World Net Daily News

This article summarizes the recent London meeting of four drug charities: Legal highs awareness charity, Angelus, Northamptonshire-based charity, and Solve It. The charities called upon party leaders to act against the dangers of legal highs. 

Their joint report "Legal Highs: An Action Plan for Change”, published June 26^th, sets out how Departments should be coordinating efforts on education, prevention, and information sharing. 

The full report can be read here.

Report: 2010 Drug Use Among Young People In England

Via NHS Information Centre's 2011 report, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2010

New data from the NHS Information Centre finds that among 11-15 year-olds, 28% of adolescents reported ever being offered any drugs. They were most likely to have been offered cannabis (18%) or volatile substances (10%). However, there has been a decrease in the number of adolescents who reported inhaling volatile substances, from 5.5% in 2009 to 3.8% in 2010.

However, for 73% of 11 and 12 year olds who had taken drugs in the last year, it was restricted to inhaling volatile substances. Volatile substance abuse continues to be the most common form of drug misuse among 11-12 year olds, and second only to cannabis across the whole 11-15 age group.

Restrictions in Essex County, England

In order to curb inhalant abuse, the Essex County Council Trading Standards in England are conducting undercover test sales for various inhalants. They use a 14-year-old girl who attempts to buy a butane refill. Five stores out of fifty made the sale. Here are the results:

On each occasion the volunteer, who was supervised throughout the process, attempted to purchase butane lighter refills. Statistics show that these account for the majority of deaths among people using them for intoxication purposes, due to volatile substance abuse (VSA).

A number of shops visited also indicated that they would have made the sale, but were out of stock or unable to locate their supply. Trading Standards officers re-visited these retailers to advise them on age restricted sales.

The stores visited included both smaller independent stores and major retail chains. Trading Standards officers said they were concerned that some retailers still believe that the legal age for purchasing solvents is 16, rather than 18.

Statistics compiled by St George's University of London show that VSA is responsible for more deaths amongst young people aged 10-16 than “conventional” illegal drugs.

Roger Walters, county council executive member for Trading Standards said:
“Solvent abuse is a serious problem, which is why these products should not be made available to young people under the age of 18. There is simply no excuse for stores to flout the law on this.

We are planning to conduct more test sales for solvents, and any retailers who continue to ignore our warnings can expect to be punished severely.”

Do you think that these restrictions will be effective? If so, which inhalants (solvents) should be limited to adults? Will it curb abuse from products already in the home? What about abuse in those older than 18?

Also, with over 1,400 abusable inhalants, it would not be feasible to ban each one from underage purchase. If those most popularly used were restricted, would a new inhalant take its place?