An exploratory study of the health harms and utilisation of health services of frequent legal high users under the interim regulated legal high market in central Auckland
Chris Wilkins, Jitesh Prasad, KC Wong, Thomas Graydon-Guy, Marta Rychert
We recruited 105 frequent legal high users from outside of licensed legal high stores in central Auckland in early 2014. Eighty percent used synthetic cannabinoids (SC) and 20% party pills . Fifty-four percent of SC users were classified as SC dependent. The most common problems reported from SC use were insomnia (29%), vomiting/nausea (25%), short temper/agitation (21%), anxiety (21%), strange thoughts (16%) and heart palpitations (14%). The health services most commonly accessed by SC users were a doctor/GP (9%), counsellor (9%), DrugHelp/MethHelp websites (7%), Alcohol & Drug Helpline (4%), ambulance (3%), A&E (3%) and hospitalisation (3%). Frequent use of SC products was associated with health problems, including drug dependency. Further research is required to determine the health risks of these products.