A protest group says it plans to target a legal high shop every month until it is shut down for good.
Perth Against Legal Highs staged its first picket of This N That on the city’s County Place on Saturday.
The group’s leader, Katie Della Bennett, said the protests will become a regular part of its campaign and will allow it to gather signatures for a petition calling for the closure of the two legal high stores in Perth, which will eventually be handed to Perth and Kinross Council.
“Legal highs have become a big social issue around Perth,” she said. “We’ve seen a huge rise in antisocial behaviour alongside a huge rise in people going into these shops.
“I get contacted on a daily basis by people saying their children are addicted there’s just no regulation over it.
“There’s all these new products coming out but because they are synthetic, even if a particular product is banned, all they need to do is change the chemical formula a wee bit. Even if someone is used to one product, it could contain completely different ingredients the next time they use it.
“It’s our aim to get these shops closed down. We are great believers in what we do and we’re not going to stop. The plan is to do one a month until the shop is shut down.”
However, the store’s owners accused the group of intimidating customers, something Katie denies.
In a posting on the shop’s Facebook page, This N That management said: “We have no problem with people who wish to put their point across, but hassling customers, laughing and pointing at them, telling them we are playing with their lives when they are buying vaporisers will not be tolerated and the police will be informed.”
Katie said protesters had spoken to some people entering the shop but denied hassling them.
She said: “Nothing could be further from the truth we have plenty of witnesses. If anything, we were actually having a laugh with the customers.
“We had information that we were distributing and people were coming up and asking us questions.
“We got nearly 80 signatures in two hours on our petition.”
Picture by Phil Hannah