Legal highs: Poppers taken from Wolverhampton city centre shop in new police blitz
Shops in Wolverhampton were visited by police targeting the sale of so-called legal highs.
New laws will ban the sale of such substances in April and police, trading standards officers and council officials wanted to spread the message that action would be taken against those who flout the ban.
Mamba, on Queen Street, Wolverhampton, a shop selling e-cigarettes, was among the premises visited. Tubes of 'poppers' were seized, but nothing else was taken.
Amrit Jhumat, compliance officer for trading standards, said: "Though we were looking for other substances, we are not going to ignore these poppers."
Owner of Mamba, Shir Shah, aged 40, said: "I was happy to voluntarily sign over the poppers to the police. We will no longer be selling them and we have never sold any of the NPS (new psychoactive substances)."
Chief Inspector Simon Inglis, from West Midlands Police's New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) team, said: "We want to give a clear message to these retailers that if they do not remove these substances, we will be back and by that time they will face the full force of criminal law. We can't stand back and wait for people to become ill or potentially die.
"We need to remove these products from the streets because of the harm they can cause to young people.
"Most of the harm has been caused by the use of the term 'legal highs'. I call them 'lethal highs' - because they are just as dangerous as other drugs."
Substances that will be subject to the ban include those referred to informally as black mamba, clockwork orange and cyclone.
Currently, they are not classified as illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act, however the law is due to change in April so police will be able to seize the products and arrest anyone suspected of supplying them.
To avoid detection, retailers sometimes advertise the substances as research chemicals, plant food, bath crystals or pond cleaner.
Andy Jervis, head of regulatory services at Wolverhampton city council, said: "We want to gather as much information as we can about where these products come from, who the retailers are and who comes in and buys them. An increasing number of people are presenting themselves to A & E having taken these substances."
There is a body of evidence to show that over 60 young people have died following the ingestion of the drugs.
Though they often mimic the effects of class A or stronger drugs, when ambulance crews arrive to treat someone who has taken these legal highs, they are unable to know what it is they have actually taken and how to deal with it.
"The chemical compound of these substances are changed week to week." said Mr Jervis.
"They are packaged and displayed as in colourful sachets that are attractive to young people who might want to experiment with them."
Mr Inglis added: "It says on the product itself not fit for human consumption.
"We have a real intelligence gap, we need to know more about them. We need to know who is selling them, what are their intentions, what they are going to do with their stock.
"We want to be on the front foot to try and remove these products now whilst we are gathering evidence about the harm they cause."
Wolverhampton is considered to be one of the cities at the forefront of implementing the new legislation, and for many shop owners the raids were the second time they have been visited by trading standards and the police.
Thirty three premises were visited in total across Wolverhampton, Coventry, Birmingham and Solihull.
