Legal highs ban: New law comes into force with seven-year sentence for offenders
Lethal legal highs are no longer available over the counter as a new law that could see offenders jailed for up to seven years came into force today.
A blanket ban has been brought in amid fears they have caused deaths and fuelled anti-social behaviour.
The introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act forbids the 'production, supply and importation or exportation for human consumption of the drugs'.
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Shelves across the Black Country have been cleared of the substances, which were linked to the deaths of 144 people in the UK in 2014 alone.
Council bosses in Wolverhampton welcomed the news and said they will be monitoring local shops to ensure the new policy is being upheld.
In a recent intelligence-led operation, police and trading standards officers visited four shops and seized 139 containers of legal highs.
However, concerns have been raised that dealers of the drugs could now turn to illicit websites to continue selling them.
Councillor Paul Sweet, cabinet member for health, said: "Anyone who takes one of these products is gambling with their lives.
"There has been little or no research into the short or long-term risks from human consumption of many of these substances. They are hugely unpredictable and can have wildly different strengths.
"The council, police and our partners are working hard to keep people safe from them. As a city we are also committed to helping users and tackling suppliers.
"We will be ensuring retailers are aware that it is now illegal to sell legal highs, and indeed any items of which there are clear doubts about their safety."
Commander Simon Bray, the National Police Chiefs Council's lead on New Psychoactive Substances, said those determined to get hold of the drugs might turn to the 'dark web' .
But he admitted the new law will mean Britons can no longer stroll into a 'headshop' and buy mind altering drugs 'in a normal transaction – like going into Boots the chemist'.
More than 500 potentially dangerous drugs have been banned since 2010 under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime Karen Bradley said the new law will go even further in tackling the drug trade.
She said: "The message is clear – so-called 'legal highs' are not safe."
