Legal highs ban ensures 90 retail closures in Scotland

The statistics were announced as the UK government minister for safeguarding, vulnerability and countering extremism, Sarah Newton, joined officers from Northumbria Police’s New Psychoactive Substances Taskforce on patrol in Newcastle city centre to see some of the retailers closed following the Act’s introduction three months ago, on 26 May.

Nationally, 308 shops have stopped selling the dangerous drugs, and 24 headshops have closed down altogether.

Ms Newton said: “These dangerous drugs have already cost far too many Scottish lives. I am delighted to see so many retailers denied the chance to profit from this reckless trade.

“The Psychoactive Substances Act is sending out a clear message – this government will take whatever action is necessary to keep our families and communities safe. These drugs are not legal, they are not safe and we will not allow them to be sold in this country.”

In 2014 alone, new psychoactive substances were implicated in, or potentially contributed to, 62 deaths in Scotland. Nationally, they were involved in the deaths of 144 people in the UK, up from 31 deaths in 2010 and there has been a total of 444 deaths involving new psychoactive substances since 2010.

DCC Ruaraidh Nicolson said: “Police Scotland has been monitoring the sale and supply of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) since 2013 and identified over 90 retailers who were involved or suspected to be involved in the sale of NPS across Scotland. All were visited a week prior to the legislation taking effect to serve an educational letter and five premises across Scotland were found to be openly selling NPS.

“A week after the legislation was introduced, the same retailers were visited once again and none were found to be openly selling NPS.”

In addition to the police action taken since the legislation was introduced, the National Crime Agency has taken action to shut down websites found to be in breach of the ban. It is working with international partners to address those websites based overseas.