UK drug service is ill equipped to deal with new “legal highs” taken by clubbers, conference is told

Dozens of new drugs known as “legal highs” are being taken by nightclubbers in London, in ignorance of their dangers and potential long term effects, a conference on public health and cities was told on Monday 22 October.

Although use of heroin and cocaine was falling, especially among young adults,1 their place was being taken by a multitude of new drugs, said Owen Bowden-Jones of Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust. He is a founder of the Club Drug Clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which opened its doors 18 months ago and which is now “overwhelmed” with people seeking help—not only from London but from all over England and even from mainland Europe.2

He told the City Health 2012 conference at the Guildhall …