Legal News

Police and local councils are warning festival-goers that they may face criminal charges if caught using “hippy crack” laughing gas or legal highs at music events.

The clampdown on so-called “legal highs” comes after the death of a festival-goer last year at the Brownstock Festival – 33-year-old Jonathan Graham took a derivative of the legal “designer” drug Benzo Fury, despite warnings that the drug was unfit for human consumption.

The government imposed a year-long ban on Benzo Fury and psychedelic drug NBOMe in June 2013 while drugs expert assessed their safety. Benzo Fury has similar effects to amphetamines, which may be harmful to anyone with a risk of heart attack or stroke, or who has high blood pressure.

Last year, Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne said that the ban was to protect the public and “prevent misery”.

“Drugs ruin lives and cause misery to families and communities – and the use of this power shows how the UK is leading the way in cracking down on new psychoactive substances,” Mr Browne said.

“This temporary-class drug order will protect the public and give our independent experts time to prepare advice, while enabling law enforcement partners to target traffickers. Making drugs illegal is only part of the solution, however.
“Users of these substances need to understand that – although they are described as 'legal highs' – they are by no means safe.”

In December, ministers announced that Benzo Fury and NBOMe would be banned.

The Brownstock Festival and the V Festival are due to take place near Chelmsford in Essex Later in August. Local councils are warning that anyone caught in possession of legal highs could be asked to leave the event or the drugs could be seized, with those found in possession facing arrest and criminal charges.

Chief Superintendent Simon Williams of Essex Police told the London Evening Standard newspaper that anyone found selling the drugs would be prosecuted.

“We would like to remind festival-goers that legal highs will not be tolerated at V Festival,” he said.

London councils are taking action to stop street sellers peddling legal highs, including balloons filled with nitrous oxide – which makes users feel relaxed and lightheaded.

The chemical deprives the brain of oxygen which could be fatal in high doses or cause irreversible brain damage. Nitrous Oxide (N2O) – or nitrogen oxide – is commonly known as laughing gas, but has been nicknamed “hippy crack” by recreational drug users. N2O is used as an anaesthetic and painkiller in dentistry.

Hackney Council in east London has seized 1,200 canisters of N2O in raids on clubs and bars in Shoreditch in the East End. In some streets in Shoreditch, street sellers openly sell nitrous oxide to clubbers in the area.

Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Trading Standards, Roger Walters, is warning that legal highs can be “extremely dangerous” because there is no regulation about where the ingredients are sourced from.

“Some contain illegal drugs – or can lead to serious medical emergencies and even death,” he said.

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