An Angus woman whose brother died following an ordeal with so-called “legal highs” believes a hard-hitting documentary will help keep high street shops from selling the lethal substances but not street-level dealers.
Michael McKay from Arbroath died in hospital last August after a four-month addiction to new psychoactive substances (NPS) destroyed his heart and left him “looking like a vampire”.
Mr McKay, a recovering heroin addict who fell in to drug use because of mental illness, died from complications arising from endocarditis caused by NPS abuse.
Laura McKay wants her brother’s case to highlight how people are being made vulnerable to ‘dangerous’ unregulated and untested substances some of which are readily available over the counter.
And she spoke following a BBC documentary that followed the trade of new psychoactive substances (NPS) from the laboratory to the user.
Experts told The Courier users are playing a game of “Russian roulette” as the trade in NPS moves further underground.
And Laura, 36, believes there will be less appetite for shops to sell the substances but street-level dealers will be less affected by images of pain and suffering on the television.
“I do hope the attention will help stop shops on our high street but I don’t think it will stop the known drug dealers,” she said.
“It’s very much a quick profit.
“They don’t care how it affects anyone or family.”
Mr McKay came off heroin in February last year and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder the next month.
He began taking NPS in May and fell ill in August, with what doctors initially thought was pneumonia before discovering infection around his heart valves.
Laura said her life “still feels the same” without her brother, and is still determined to help educate people about what they can do to rid towns like Arbroath and Montrose of NPS.
“I hope the documentary makes people more aware, as it’s nothing to be ashamed of, fighting for something you believe shouldn’t be in our community,” she said.
The Deadly World of Legal Highs portrayed organised gangs in China as being behind a covert trade in legal highs.
The BBC team found chemical labs in China routinely send legal highs to the UK using courier services.
One laboratory said it sends drugs in packages described as “birthday gifts”.
Photo by Angus Pictures