A BLANKET ban on the sale of so-called ‘legal highs’ has been broadly welcomed by East Lancashire drug charities and MPs.

The Conservative government proposed plans to outlaw all new psychoactive substances during last week’s Queen’s Speech.

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But one expert said criminalisation would only drive the market underground and one user said it would not stop her taking the products.

The Lancashire Telegraph reported in April how Blackburn’s Accrington Road Community Centre had to shut its doors due to safety fears after 20 teenagers took legal highs.

A drug called Happy Joker was also cited as a factor in the manslaughter of 18-year-old Ashley Meadowcroft, a legal high user who was stabbed to death by fellow addict Rebecca Tootle.

Under the proposed legislation, the production, distribution, sale and supply of new substances could land retailers a seven-year prison term, but possession for personal use will not be punished.

Hyndburn’s Labour MP Graham Jones, who has campaigned for a number of years for such drugs to be banned, said the Bill was ‘good news’.

He said: “This is a victory for all those MPs and members of the public who campaigned for this step to be taken .”

One 30-year-old woman said she felt like she was ‘paralysed’ while under the influence of legal highs.

The Burnley resident, who asked not to be named, said she used the substances on a regular basis and, despite having bad experiences, was opposed to the proposed ban.

She said: “I was abroad on a beach where they were selling balloons full of laughing gas.

“I took loads and loads and I could hear things before I saw them. It was really scary.

“I heard my friend say: ‘She’s fallen off her chair,’ and then I fell off my chair. It really messed with my mind and I couldn’t do anything about it because I couldn’t speak. It was like I was paralysed .”

Blackburn with Darwen Council officials visited several shops earlier this year to discourage the businesses from stocking legal highs.

And police issued a warning about a legal high called Vertex last month after a 14-year-old Barnoldswick girl became ill after using the substance.

Luke Bidwell, area manager at Early Break, a drug and alcohol charity for under-18s based in Nelson, said many of the 600 referrals they had last year were addicted to legal highs.

He said: “On one hand, I think something had to happen because there they have been openly sold for too long. However, by making it illegal, the main concern is that it just goes underground.

“The main thing we need to focus on is education: spreading the message that something being legal does not necessarily mean it is not harmful.”