National Policing Lead for New Psychoactive Substances Commander Simon Bray said:

"The term legal highs to describe new psychoactive substances (NPS) is misleading; often these substances contain illegal drugs and , in some cases, their production and supply is linked to organised crime groups trading in illegal drugs, firearms and weapons.

"Police are tackling new psychoactive substances; operations last week saw police target those suspected of supplying NPS, arresting 44 people, making personal visits to large scale users to warn them of the dangers and visiting head shops and removing products labelled legal highs for analysis. But government, law enforcement and health face real challenges because producers of these drugs are able to make small changes to the chemical recipe each a time a new psychoactive substance is controlled.

"We are supportive of the government's review of NPS and its aim of producing evidence based, tailored powers that will help us to protect the public. I look forward to being involved in the review."