While we may be wholly confident our children know the dangers of drug abuse, as mums are we sure that our children are as savvy when it comes to the implications associated with 'legal highs'?
Following the hospitalisation of three teenage boys who took legal highs in Salisbury last Friday, campaigners have called on the government to raise further awareness of an issue which urgently requires attention.
Commenting on the repercussions of the teens' actions, Local Inspector Dave Minty said: "These drugs may be so called 'legal highs' but there is no way of knowing what chemicals are in these substances and what the consequences of taking them will be."
With legal highs also known as New Psychoactive Substances linked to numerous deaths in recent years campaigners have spoken out against the practice, with a spokesman for the Angelus Foundation asserting: "Sadly these incidents of collapsing after taking legal highs is all too commonplace."
"The law is about to change on legal highs banning their sale but the Government has shown no commitment to educating young people about their harms. Without greater public awareness these dangerous incidents will continue," he concluded.
Appealing to the public for information into the case which involved three 15-year-olds, Inspector Minty said: "My officers have commenced an investigation into this incident. I would also ask that anyone with information as to where these substances are being sold contacts us straight away."
It is believed the teenage boys ingested the substances in the Queen Elizabeth Gardens area of the city.
