Manchester police warn 'legal highs' are now illegal
Offenders caught producing or selling 'designer drugs' face 7 years in prison.
Greater Manchester Police say they fully intendend to enforce the new laws on so-called 'legal Highs'.
It is now illegal to supply, produce or import psychoactive substances which can seriously alter brain function.
It comes after recent cases in Greater Manchester, including nine people requiring medical treatment from the effects of taking the now banned substances in Rochdale.
It's believed they all collapsed with serious effects after taking substances labelled; 'Annihilation’, 'Clockwork Orange', 'Pandora’s Box', 'Kronic or 'Cherry Bombs.
Earlier in May an inquest heard how Stretford man, Nicholas Sharman, 34, was left brain dead after consuming a cocktail of legal highs. He passed away in hospital in december, 2015.
New psychoactive substances - also referred to as designer drugs - saw an explosion in popularity on the drug scene in around 2008 and 2009. They contain substances which mimic the effects of traditional'' illegal drugs like cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy.
Official analysis published last month found that deaths linked to so-called legal highs'' more than tripled in two years, with a total of 76 recorded in England and Wales over a decade from 2004.
Greater Manchester Police Superintendent Alistair Mallen said; "If there's someone out there thinking they can continue to sell they're going to get a knock on the door and we're going to take the stuff asway but this time they're going to be arrested for a criminal offence."
Offenders will face up to seven years in prison under the Psychoactive Substances Act.
PL