The Koyal Group
Dangerous legal high drugs can easily be bought by under-18s from high street “head shops”.
The stores say they will not sell to under-age youngsters but the Mirror’s 17-year-old undercover buyer was only once refused.
Other shops did not ask for ID and she bought 17 packets of expensive legal highs, five cans of “cannabis” drinks and three bottles of nitrite “poppers” in just two hours.
Her haul included packets of Clockwork Orange, a substance under investigation by the National Poison Information Service after three teenagers started vomiting blood after taking it.
It is estimated 700,000 young people aged 15 to 24 have experimented with legal highs in the UK and at least 40 deaths last year were linked to them. In June, Scottish dance music fan Anthony Storrie, 25, of Paisley, was killed after taking a cocktail of legal highs.
The Intoxicating Substances Supply Act 1985 makes it an offence to supply someone under 18 a substance if the seller “knows or has reasonable cause to believe the substance or its fumes are likely to be inhaled for the purpose of causing intoxication”.
The problem with the law as it stands is that it can be difficult to prove a shopkeeper knows substances sold will be taken.
The website — clearly marked with an “18” sign — boasts: “We’re your one-stop online shop for party supplies or a chilled night in!” The assistant sold Hannah four one gram bags of herbal incense, including another bag of Clockwork Orange, for £50.
In Sidcup, South East London, the slick frontage of the High Life shop says it sells “lifestyle and leisure accessories”. A sticker on the door warns that under-18s are not allowed.
But when Hannah visited the store, an assistant sold her four packets of legal highs for £30 within seconds.
The Jumping Bean tablet she bought is clearly marked with a “no under-18s” symbol and says on the back “not for sale to minors”. Though the pill is described as a “research chemical pellet” and “not for human consumption”, the blurb says it will have users “bouncing off the walls all night, a wicked speedy rush with lots tingles!”
Other products bought — Pink Pa