The number of people being treated at Lincoln County Hospital after taking legal highs has dramatically decreased in the last three years.
A Freedom of Information request to the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust revealed that the number of people being treated after taking legal highs has more than halved from 38 people in 2015, to just 15 people in 2017.
There have been no deaths reported following admissions for use of legal highs.
The data shows cases of people who have been treated after taking drugs such as ‘Spice’ and ‘Mamba’ which are synthetic cannabis substitutes, and ‘Benzo Fury’ which is an ecstasy substitute.
The numbers were recorded after Lincoln brought in the UK’s first city-wide ban on taking legal highs in public, by introducing a Public Space Protection Order in April 2015.
Inspector Pat Coates, who has been responsible for policing in Lincoln for the last nine years, said: “We certainly had a significant issue with the consumption of New Psychoactive substances in the city centre before the PSPO. The main issue we saw was anti-social behaviour, and this took the form of people collapsed in the street, people acting erratically and aggressively, and becoming unwell, requiring medical treatment in significant numbers.”
The introduction of the order, and the use of anti-social behaviour legislation, led to the closure of two “head shops” that were selling the products in the city centre, and were even known to be supplying them to school children.
Inspector Coates said: “There has been a significant reduction in issues linked to their use, and in general terms, there are less people who are now using legal highs or experimenting in their use. Certainly, in the first two years after the order, we saw a reduction in the number of incidents and, as a consequence, a reduction in demand on us.”
