DANGEROUS legal highs could soon be taken off the shelves in York.

A new Government bill proposed during the Queen’s Speech plans to ban all types of the potentially lethal synthetic drugs and will be debated by ministers in the coming weeks.

If the Psychoactive Substances Bill is approved it would make it an offence to produce, supply, import or export legal highs – but possession will not be made illegal.

As revealed by The Press in January, one city centre shop sells them for as little as £7.99 but labels them as ‘not fit for human consumption’, and claims to only sell them if they believe customers will not take the substances.

Steph Brodie works with vulnerable people in York and has seen them used among the homeless.

“Nobody knows what’s in them,” she said, welcoming the ban.

“We know about heroin and amphetamines, but we don’t know what’s in legal highs or the consequences of taking them.

“They are horrendous and we should definitely ban them and educate people.

“Their use has definitely gone up since I started doing charity work.

“It’s all about money and the pockets it is lining. They don’t care about who takes them.”

Legal highs are readily available online and have hospitalised scores of people in the last 12 months.

York Press:

>>> FLASHBACK: Warning over legal highs on sale in York

Ten days ago five students in Lancaster were rushed to hospital after taking Spice – a drug which replicates the effects of cannabis and was banned in the UK in 2009 after previously being available to over 18s.

Julian Sturdy, MP for York Outer, pictured below, has previously spoken out against the sale of legal highs in York and has backed the Government’s plans to ban them.

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He said: “I am delighted that the serious problem of illegal highs was addressed in the Queen’s Speech and I hope to see a blanket ban on such dangerous substances introduced by the Government as quickly as possible.

“It is absolutely essential that we clamp down on this reckless trade, which has already claimed the lives of far too many young people in this country.”