A social media campaign backing the sale of legal highs in Perth has been slammed by drug protesters and city politicians.
A campaign page has been created on Facebook under the title Perth for Legal Highs and all NPS (new psychoactive substances), imitating the name of the group fighting to have legal high shops banned from the city.
Perth Against Legal Highs have staged several protests where they targeted This N’ That in County Place in a bid to get the shop closed down for good. They are also preparing to petition Perth and Kinross Council after collecting hundreds of signatures backing their campaign.
The pro legal high web page claims they have an equal right to voice their opinions over why Perth residents should be allowed to buy legal highs.
The page posts pictures and messages advocating the use of mind-altering drugs. It also contains comments attacking a video of a legal high protester who claims it is better to have a heroin overdose than a legal high one.
The page comments: “She seems to think the emergency staff know what the dealers put into their products. I am sure they do not tell the customers about the talc powder etc.
“The legal high suppliers on the other hand provide ingredients with their products, so if someone does stupidly take too much, like with paracetamol and other medicines, the packet can be taken to the hospital with them.”
Perth Against Legal Highs group leader Katie Della Bennett said the creators of the campaign are not taking into account the effect the drugs can have.
She said: “Everybody is entitled to their opinion and adults make a choice about what they put into their bodies.
“I get contacted on a daily basis by people saying their children are addicted.”
Among the legal highs This N That is said to offer is controversial brand Spice. It is a synthetic cannabinoid and can be up to 100 times as potent as cannabis, the drug it mimics.
The brand is known to have caused seizures, psychosis, kidney failure and strokes and has been linked to deaths.
Perth Lib Dem councillor Peter Barrett believes the operators of the legal high shops are the ones behind the online campaign.
He said: “Clearly the protests outside the shop are getting under the skin of the operators. I suspect it is the operators themselves who are behind the creation of the pages.
“It smacks of desperation that they want to engage in online propaganda to protect their commercial interest in selling psychoactive substances to vulnerable young people and people already suffering from alcohol and substance misuse.”
The social media campaign creators were contacted by The Courier but did not respond.