Woman on legal high ‘like something from Exorcist’

An A&E medic has described the horror at seeing a woman legal highs going beserk as it took eight staff to restrain her.

The woman's actions were said to be 'like something out of the Exorcist'

In a testimony submitted to police about the effect that legal highs can have, the doctor describes a woman who had taken Burst, a substance which has now been banned, as “like something out of the Exorcist”.

The 24-year-old woman “looked like the embodiment of pure terror”, according to the medic.

They wrote: “She is spitting and scratching, raging and thrashing against her five caring professionals with the superhuman strength of the delirious and threatened . . . With a team of eight of us, we manage to restrain her enough to get an intravenous drip into her.”

The patient returned to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary the following week, having harmed herself due to delusional thoughts caused by the legal highs. The account concludes the burden caused by those using the substances is so high that it will come at a cost to other patients.