I am really delighted that all political parties in Portsmouth and Southsea are going to help campaign against ‘legal highs’ or as they should be called, psychoactive substances or research chemicals, being sold in our city. I have been working on this for some time and Penny Mordaunt and I held a conference a few months ago to feed ideas and information into a Parliamentary group looking into this pernicious problem.
I have been going round the ‘head shops’ in Portsmouth South with the latest Home Office guidance and have been horrified by the paraphernalia and other stuff in the shops. One of them is outside a secondary school and close by is a shop window publicising various seeds that you can buy. None of this is illegal yet but we are working on it and other police forces are cracking down already. The local police are aware of the issues and visit the shops regularly but it really takes political will to stop these shops so I am very pleased that there is a cross-party consensus on this and we may be able to move forward quickly.
‘Legal highs’ as I mentioned in a recent leaflet that I sent out to residents, are extremely dangerous even in small quantities. They are made of various chemicals and keep changing as each one is banned. Risks include high blood pressure, psychological damage, the risk of being sectioned and even death. It is totally irresponsible for shops to be selling untested chemicals that give different outcomes for each taker. One shop I visited has small ornament vacuum cleaners with a pile of white powder next to them. Although this might not be illegal, it is certainly morally wrong.
I am very concerned about our young people using these psychoactive substances that may be legal but are deadly. I am in regular touch with the local police and have asked for a meeting with the Police and Crime Commissioner to persuade the police to follow the example of other police forces. I know that young people will be able to access them through the internet but perhaps this will stop them experimenting in the first place. If we all work together on this and educate our children at the same time we should prevent any more deaths and distress for families.