The sale and use of legal highs has been described in Parliament as a “national emergency”. For legal high users who end up in hospital or on treatment programmes, it is important to be able to measure these new substances in patient samples.
The Clinical Biochemistry Department at City Hospital in Birmingham is now offering a range of tests to help with quick and reliable testing for legal highs, which include pills, powders and dried plant material onto which chemicals have been sprayed. Many of the chemicals are relatively new and little is known about them. Products are sold as ‘research chemicals’ to try and get around the law.
Pathology staff at City Hospital, Birmingham, have developed methods to enable legal high drug use to be detected. The laboratory can measure ‘classic’ drugs of abuse such as cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and ecstasy, along with the main chemicals in legal highs on sale today. To ensure the right chemicals are looked for in patient samples, staff sometimes visit local ‘head shops’, and also check internet sites to see what is available.
The department has also produced a short video about its services and this is available on the SWBH Pathology TV News YouTube channel.
www.cityassays.org.uk