A search has been launched to discover the extent of the use of legal highs in the Highlands.
Highland Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (HADP) are conducting a survey to try and discover how widespread the use of legal highs are in the Highlands and who is using them.
The partnership will also have access to accident and emergency figures from Raigmore Hospital for admissions linked to the use of legal highs. Findings will be used to provide support systems for drug users and for providing education programmes in schools.
Debbie Stewart, HADP co-ordinator, said: “It’s fair to say this is a big concern nationally and our aim is to try and work out how much of an issue it is in the Highlands at a local level.
“It is hard to put figures as to how widespread the use of legal highs is, who is using them and where. That’s why this is a useful exercise – the purpose is really to draw up a baseline to find trends of use and look at what types of action plans we can put in place to help people.”
HDAP is a group of agencies that work together to reduce the risks and harms from alcohol and drugs across Highland and is made up of NHS Highland, Highland Council, Police Scotland, Crown Office, HMP Inverness and the third sector.
The group carried out a pilot event to look at the extent of use of legal highs – and Ms Stewart admitted she was “surprised” by the response, with more than 100 people answering in just a few days.
Questions in the current survey focus on what types of legal highs are used, where people take them and what could encourage people to stop taking them. There are also questions on what type of support could be used to encourage people to stop taking the drugs.
Ms Stewart added: “One of the questions which we are most interested in is the age of users.
“Previous studies have shown that the age of drug users in general is going up and it’s not necessarily young people as you might expect.
“We hope that by undertaking public consultation such as this survey, we can gain a better understanding of the substances available and offer better support, advice and guidance to those who use them.”
Legal highs have been blamed for the deaths of 36 people in Scotland in 2013, according to figures released by the National Drug-Related Deaths Database last month.
In 2012 Edinburgh man Alex Herriot, 19, died at the RockNess festival, near Inverness, after taking a substance known as Benzo Fury, which mimics the effects of the class A drug ecstasy.
The free, confidential survey can be found at www.surveymonkey. com/s/legalhigh-nps- highland