Belgium moves to ban ‘legal highs’

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The Belgian government is to table legislation that will make legal highs illegal. Legal highs are drugs manufactured from ingredients that are freely available on the Belgian market.

Legal highs are synthetic drugs produced using substances freely available like bath salts. They have the same effects as banned substances.

Belgian Health Minister Laurette Onkelinx told the cabinet that drugs like these are cheap and readily available on the internet. She added: “There are often massive problems surrounding the products’ safety.”

In Russia a ‘crocodile drug’ is being traded that turns the skin green before allowing it to rot.

The use of legal highs is on the increase in Belgium. 4% of youngsters have currently used legal highs.

The problem is complicated because as soon as substances are banned producers switch to products with a different chemical structure.