Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of legal highs upon public health.

There have been a number of assessments of the health harms of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in recent years. These include the following:

- a summary of the health harms of drugs published by the Department in August 2011 sets out an assessment of the health harms of novel psychoactive drugs among others. The report outlined acute and chronic problems associated these substances, but the date of the evidence review meant it was early to determine the actual harms of the NPS;

- the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) published its report ‘Consideration of the Novel Psychoactive Substances (‘Legal Highs’)’ in 2011. The report includes an assessment of the harms that these drugs cause;

- since 2010, the ACMD has published a number of reports on their assessment of different types of NPS, including the harms they cause. The drugs the ACMD have reported on include tryptamines, NBOMe compounds, benzofurans, O-desmethyltramadol, methoxetamine, synthetic cannabinoids, and 2-DPMP (Ivory Wave);

- on 30 October 2014, the Home Office published the report of an expert panel they appointed to look at the issue of NPS and provide recommendations to the Government. Alongside the report and the Government response, the Home Office also published an NPS evidence review. The evidence review found that that the available evidence suggests that the overall harms from NPS are low compared to the overall harms from traditional illicit drugs;

- the Government’s Drugs Early Warning System (DEWS) helps ensure that harmful new substances are rapidly identified. Local and national intelligence gathered by DEWS – including health harms – assists the ACMD in its assessment of harms of NPS. On a broader scale, national intelligence is fed into a Europe-wide early warning system for new substances;

- FRANK, the government’s drug information service, has information about the harms caused by NPS; and

- Public Health England (PHE) is supporting and contributing clinical expertise to the first set of clinical guidelines on the acute management and treatment of novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Project NEPTUNE will advise clinicians on how to assess and respond to NPS related harm and is currently being developed by the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. The guidelines are due to be published in 2015. PHE has committed to using its networks and other resources to support the dissemination of project NEPTUNE’s findings and advice.