Exclusive: Dramatic rise in legal highs incidents in Wales revealed

  • Wales
Legal highs are on sale in some shops, and over the internet Credit: ITV News

An ITV News investigation has revealed a twenty-fold increase in the number of police incidents involving so-called legal highs in Wales in just two years.

They are designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs, and often have extreme health risks.

Leading think-tank the Centre for Social Justice has warned that deaths from legal highs could overtake those from heroin by 2016.

Both the Home Office and a Welsh Assembly committee are looking into whether there should be changes to the law to tackle the problem.

Watch coverage of the story from our Wales at Six programme:

ITV News submitted Freedom of Information requests to all four Welsh police forces, and found the number of incidents logged with the words 'legal high' increase from just 11 in the year to 2012, to more than 207 this year.

Read More: Breakdown of Welsh police force 'legal high' incidents

Across the UK, at least one death each week involves legal highs.

Police say they are a particular challenge because the term 'legal high' implies safety, and users often know very little about the substances contained within them, which vary substantially.

Watch: Police taking 'hard-line proactive approach' on legal highs'

We filmed with a group of young people in Cardiff taking part in a drugs education session with social enterprise Nu-Hi Training.

Watch: Teenage user describes how legal highs feel 'like a video game'

Watch: Teenager knows someone who died, but will still take legal highs

The Welsh Assembly's Health and Social Care Committee is holding an inquiry into the problem of legal highs in Wales, the level of knowledge around them, and whether changes to the law could help tackle the issue.

Watch: Assembly Members look into possible law change on legal highs

The Home Office, which is responsible for classifying drugs here, told ITV News it will soon be announcing the outcome of its review.

It is considering the approach used in Ireland, where - rather than banning substances one at a time - authorities have implemented a blanket ban on mind-altering substances, with exemptions like alcohol.