Traders dealing in deadly synthetic drugs and so-called “legal highs” could soon be run out of Dundee and Angus.
An extensive dossier detailing high street sales of controversial new psychoactive substances (NPS) has been passed on to police, The Courier can reveal.
NHS Tayside has interviewed 135 NPS users on behalf of the region’s alcohol and drugs partnership.
It found most are teenagers aged 16 to 18 who first buy the substances from a “head shop”, often on high streets.
Now landlords could be made to answer for their tenants if they are known to sell goods still to come under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Full details of the NHS files, which have been submitted to police chiefs and the local community safety partnership, are expected to be published this week on the heels of a UK Government report calling for stricter controls on head shops.
The Home Office has proposed prohibiting the distribution of legal highs, targeting shops and sales from UK domain websites.
Dundee City councillor Ken Lynn, health and social work convener, said he believed selling these substances was “irresponsible” and added that he was in favour of anything that would prevent the sale of so-called “legal highs”.
He said: “In many cases, legal highs have a worse effect than illegal ones. It is frustrating because there is little that the council can do to close them down as the problem is in the name, ‘legal’.
“Recently, I heard of a shop being closed in Arbroath due to public pressure. However, it reopened again not long after it closed.
“I think it is very irresponsible for people to sell these. Anecdotal evidence is that among the homeless community the use of legal highs is more common than it has ever been.
“People are making a profit from something which is often described as being not fit for human consumption, in reality plant food.
“People are in danger of seriously damaging their health by taking those things.”
North East MSP Alex Johnstone said he is confident “a comprehensive set of measures” on the high street will deliver results.
He added: “Tackling legal highs has been incredibly challenging because of producers’ ability to slightly change the chemical composition of them to get around legislation, but I think this is the right approach based on action taken in other countries.”
Police raided shops in Arbroath and Montrose during a high-profile crackdown on legal high sales in the summer.
The force’s Operation Carinate was the result of a partnership with trading standards officers, health boards and drug agencies.