Legal highs – a user's story: 'It's like taking cannabis with the effect of heroin'

'Everybody else was doing it so I had a go... Now I take them a couple of times a day'

The UK has the largest legal high market in the EU, and it’s having a devastating effect across the country.

Drugs that mimic the effects of classified substances such as heroin and cannabis are still easily available on high streets from some of Britain’s 250 specialist stores, called headshops.

Some of the highs are believed to be even more addictive than heroin and are taken disproportionately by the most vulnerable members of society.

Newcastle is one city that has been plagued by legal highs in recent years.

According to Steven Southam, 31, legal highs are "like cannabis. With the effect of heroin".

In the video above, The Independent’s Adam Lusher speaks to him about what it's like to take the drug that's destroying lives across the country.