Call to tackle ‘legal highs’

Published on 05/07/2012 12:00

Scotland’s most senior frontline police have called for new powers to tackle “legal highs” following the death of Portobello teenager Alex Heriot.

The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS) has met ministers to discuss ways of introducing preventative legislation allowing them to stop, search, seize and destroy the drugs.

Chief Superintendent David O’Connor, president of ASPS, said: “Police in Scotland do not have adequate powers to prevent the significant harm which can result from the abuse of legal highs. That is not right.”