Angus students have fed into a strategy which aims to tackle the blight of legal highs.
In a double-edged learning event, the Dundee and Angus College Arbroath campus students were given valuable information regarding the issue of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and the dangers they present.
The wider discussion of the controversial substances also saw the students come up with ideas that will be incorporated in strategies being developed by Angus Alcohol and Drugs Partnership to help spread the word about the danger of taking legal highs.
The students, representing disciplines including social science, construction, engineering and care, looked at areas including safety, health and social aspects of legal highs, as well as examining information on the subject.
Role play, film, posters, texts and online information were among the ideas suggested by students for getting information out about the risks of NPS.
Laura Ogilvie of the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership was involved in the college event, which supported recommendations from a report published last year on the impact of legal highs on Tayside suggesting that there should be greater dissemination of information about NPS and more education and advice on the issue.
A college spokesperson said: “This event offered the students the opportunity to be involved directly with issues that can affect them and their communities.
“It also allowed them to work with a partnership group which is active in the local community.”
Angus communities have mounted a strong campaign against legal highs and taken steps to reduce their availability through outlets such as so-called head shops.
Groups in Montrose and Arbroath joined forces and have welcomed the closure of high street shops selling chemicals under the description of “not fit for human consumption”.
Legal highs have been described by one local councillor as a “lethal menace” and the offenders in the grip of an NPS addiction have regularly appeared at the local court.