Youngsters in Perth are becoming “ravenously addicted” to deadly “legal highs”, the city’s top police officer has warned.
Chief Inspector Mike Whitford said youths have even taken to injecting the substances despite knowing little about their ingredients.
The area commander for Perth and Kinross has called for stricter controls over their distribution.
He raised his concerns after a group of experts called on the Scottish Government to introduce new laws to crack down on what are officially termed new psychoactive substances (NPS).
A Holyrood working group has asked for close liaison with the Home Office to clamp down on their sale.
Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show there were five confirmed cases who attended the accident and emergency department and were then admitted to hospital in Perth and Kinross last year after taking legal highs.
Separately, Perth city centre and Perth city north had the highest number of hospital discharges regarding unconfirmed cases of people taking “legal highs” in Perth and Kinross with figures of 13 and nine respectively (from January to September).
Mr Whitford said some “abusers” of so-called legal highs were injecting, which he described as “horrific”.
“We also have people smoking them they’ll use any means they can,” he said.
“People that take these substances very quickly become ravenously addicted.”
“I’m aware of numerous people locally for whom the craving is stark and that obviously leads to crime.
“But almost more important than that is the harm it is doing to them.
“You’re talking about pumping stuff into blood vessels which will have significant impact on the brain and the body. The bottom line is it causes harm.
“Anyone who takes these substances is putting the most horrible materials into their system. The impact is that people get desperate cravings real misery.”
The police chief said officers have been speaking to people who have been taking the substances and received “testimony” to the impact it has had on their lives.
“We’ve discussed this with the procurator fiscal and of the possibility of going down the road of classing this as reckless conduct,” he added.
“However, part of the problem is that they are classed as lawful substances for human consumption and the shop staff are all trained not to sell them to people below a certain age.
“Each substance is unique so you’re chasing your tail but hopefully soon we’ll see a more coherent approach from the law.”
Mr Whitford feels the classification and legalisation of “legal highs” is challenging.
“The organisations that produce these substances are very professional in that they already know all the loopholes to get away with selling this stuff,” he said.
“The people who produce these ‘legal highs’ are very clever and very organised. I remember these substances started appearing back in 2008.”
The police chief revealed local meetings have taken place with politicians and substance abuse help groups and identified the amount of work spent on the problem by the Home Office.
“We talked about how things are going on in the UK and Ireland and to see how we can legislate,” he said.
“We’ve carried out joint operations and removed materials from shops. Some of these were tested and found to have controlled drugs in them, so that was very much an angle we took.
“The key thing here is that everybody is working very hard to take this forward.”
Mr Whitford said he would not want to “pre-empt” legislation but admitted time needs to be spent looking at ways of solving the problem.