Campaigners against outlets selling “legal highs” in Angus say the fight must be taken beyond town centres and into the online world.
Angus councillors this week unanimously agreed a motion put forward by Arbroath councillor David Fairweather which will see authority chief executive Richard Stiff write to the UK and Scottish governments to press the concerns of Angus and ask what measures are being planned to either ban the sale of psychoactive substances, or to licence the shops which sell them.
The legal highs issue has seen a major campaign mounted in Arbroath where last year a “head shop” was set up just doors away from a church-run drug addiction support centre.
The Rev Martin Fair of St Andrew’s Church has since become a leading figure in the Arbroath Against Legal Highs group, which some 2,000 people have signed up to.
He addressed members of the full council in Forfar and spoke about the devastating impact of legal highs on young people, which he has witnessed first-hand.
“We are not naive, we understand that the issue of new psychoactive substances is a global problem,” he said. “It needs a global response, for our UK government, our Scottish government and our local authorities all to step up.
“We are here to ask the council to use every available means to ensure the streets of our towns are free of these shops.
“We implore the council to be as creative as possible to take them from our streets and prevent our young people from walking into the world of drugs,” he added.
Arbroath councillor Donald Morrison said that despite a year of behind-the-scenes work involving discussions with police and trading standards officers, the legal highs issue was proving a “tough nut to crack”.
“Another option is to introduce a licensing policy or bye-law. Though licensing could imply the council is condoning or legislating the use of legal highs, I believe we need to use every tool in the box and that option must be investigated,” he said.
“Earlier this week this council, after lobbying Cosla, has made submissions to them in order that they can petition both governments.
“With reports of side effects such as mental health, poisoning and an increase in deaths, the action group and the Rev Fair have to continue their fight in ridding these shops from our high streets and ultimately online sales and I fully support this motion.”
A Cosla spokesman said: “The issue of legal highs is a matter of concern.
“It has indeed been raised with Cosla by Angus Council with a view to getting it on to the agenda at our political meetings, which we are happy to do.”