THE number of police incidents involving so-called legal highs in Lancashire has tripled in a year, new figures have revealed.

An inquiry by the Centre for Social Justice showed there were 347 cases involving the substances in 2014, 230 more than the year before.

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And the figure has soared since 2010, when just eight cases were recorded.

Lancashire’s police and crime commissioner Clive Grunshaw said he would support councils and the Government in introducing a ban on legal highs because of the pressures incidents involving the drugs put on police resources.

He said: “Legal highs, just like illegal drugs, can cause particular problems. The issue is one that local councils and the Government need to take action on .”

Bosses at Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council have both said they are working to try to crack down on the number of places selling the substances.

Legal highs contain one or more chemical substances which produce similar effects to illegal drugs like cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy. They are not yet controlled by the law and their effects can be unpredictable.

They cannot be sold for human consumption so they are often sold as incense, salts or plant food to get round the law.

Risks of legal highs include reduced inhibitions, drowsiness, excited or paranoid states, psychosis, hallucinations, comas and seizures. Many have been linked to emergency hospital admissions and deaths.

CSJ director Christian Guy said: “As well as posing worrying health risks, these figures suggest legal highs are placing increasing pressure on public services.

“It is too easy for young people to walk into high street shops and buy these drugs — many of them are as dangerous and addictive as Class A substances.

“If we want to start responding to the problems caused by legal highs we need to clamp down on those making a living out of selling them.”

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “Just because a substance is sold in a shop or on the internet as ‘legal’ does not mean it is legal or safe.

“Sadly, there are clever people out there making a lot of money by selling drugs under the misnomer legal highs which may in fact pose a risk to people’s health.

“Many of these products either contain controlled substances which are illegal or uncontrolled substances whose side-effects cannot be predicted.”