Legal highs are being banned, here's what you've told us about them

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A drawing of legal high packets

All legal highs are going to be banned.

At the moment the government bans them on an individual basis, leaving it struggling to catch up each time new chemicals are introduced to the market.

When a similar ban was introduced in Northern Ireland, there was a "massive reduction in the number of people taking these drugs," a spokesman for the Local Government Association said.

There were also fewer injuries and deaths as a result, he said.

Here's what young people have told Newsbeat about their experiences with legal highs:

"I've done Salvia, Pandora's Box, Spicy and I can't remember the name of the last one, but it was a pill. Two of them tripped me out. All of them made me proper buzzy, like a pill. And the other one was just like taking cannabis," said one man in Brighton.

"I feel really bad inside like I'm never going to be able to get off it, I'm never going to be able to get myself away from it because it's so addictive," said Sam, 23.

"You can see people just staggering up and down the high street almost like zombies - absolutely off their face," said Jamie, 20.

"A few people I did know have carried on doing it and I've watched them become homeless and they look nothing like they used to."

"Everything's more intense really, you giggle more, you'd sit in your own box and just zone out. Before you knew it you were hooked on them," said James, 16.

"You do feel better that you bought it from a shop, but it's probably just as dangerous as buying something from a dealer," said Jessica, 18.

"You can't function right. You can't even get a cup of juice. You want to go to sleep, but you're so awake."

"Ryan was completely gone. Red in the eyes. Sweating. Ridiculous. It looked far worse than being really drunk. It was physical sickness," said Luke, 19.

All images drawn by Newsbeat's resident artist Ginevra Boni.

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