There has been a “definite increase in the use of legal highs” in St Peter’s Ward, a Police Inspector warned this week.
Inspector Erica Crawshaw’s comments come after a surge in complaints about anti-social behaviour in the area. Residents have also noticed a growing number of small gas canisters and containers of laughing gas littering St Peter’s.
Although nitrous oxide, or laughing gas as it is commonly called, is currently legal to possess, the drug has been linked to several highly publicised deaths. In 2007 Daniel Watts, a 23-year-old company director, was found dead at his home in Birmingham next to a large cylinder of nitrous oxide.
There is also speculation that drug dealers sell legal highs to subsidise their illegal activity. The government is currently debating policy reform to make it harder to profit from the sale of the drug.
Inspector Crawshaw said: “There has been a lot of drug paraphernalia, legal and not, found around the Cluse Court area. We believe that to be the main drop-off point for drugs in the car parks.”
“They use the youths as drug mules. Most are between 14 and 16. This also accumulates in a lot of local problems like vandalism and grief for the residents. It’s such a dense area.”
Drug raids have taken place in the area in the last week on top of the issuing of several warrants for arrests relating to the use of narcotics.
She added: “With young people, we find that interventions work better than arrests in most cases. We want to work with the communities. We want to make estates unattractive places for the youth [to deal drugs].
“Other areas have used ‘Out of Hours’ teams, men with dogs rather than police, but that wouldn’t work here because the youths challenge them and throw stones. They are intimidating and violent.”
A local, who asked only to be identified as Claire, said: “We need to put more money towards positive, engaging activities for the youth in the area. If there were facilities close by, it would give them something to do in the evenings.”
When questioned about the lack of youth activities in the area, Councillor Alice Perry said that the “budget for 2016 has been cut by 20%. I am going to ask [St Peter’s Councillor] Martin Klute to talk to local schools about using their facilities out of hours.”
What are legal highs?
- Substances which produce similar effects to illegal drugs but are not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
- They cannot be sold for human consumption, but are often sold as bath salts or plant food.
- Most fall into three main categories: stimulants, sedatives or hallucinogens
PHOTO: CHLOE KERR
