蜜芽传媒

Cheshire Police are taking new measures to tackle a growing problem of people collapsing after taking legal highs.

Sergeant Andy Smith from Cheshire Police talked 蜜芽传媒 Radio 5 live鈥檚 Rowan Bridge through an incident they caught on CCTV.

The footage shows a man sitting on Chester鈥檚 Rows, smoking a substance he takes from a packet in his pocket.

鈥淭he most striking aspect is it鈥檚 literally a minute later that his head is down, he appears to be struggling under the influence鈥�, Sergeant Smith says.

鈥淭he advice from our colleagues at the North West ambulance service is to treat a collapse in these circumstances as a medical emergency鈥�

Asked about his reaction to seeing this footage for the first time he replied: 鈥淚t is shocking to trained police officers who鈥檝e been serving on the streets of Chester for twenty plus years. They are coming across these collapses and to their untrained eyes they believe these persons to be deceased鈥�.

The force have grown increasingly concerned with the number of people collapsing in Chester city centre, on occasions appearing lifeless, after taking legal highs. These people often suffer these adverse effects in full view of passers-by, including young children. In October, Cheshire police issued three shops in the city centre with Community Prevention Notices to help combat the problem of legal highs. The notices prohibit the selling and distribution of legal highs. They are one of the tools available to the police to tackle the issue of legal highs and associated anti-social behaviour.

This clip was originally broadcast on Thursday 10 December 2015

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