The countries that take the most legal highs

New research from the annual Global Drug Survey shows a rise in the use of “legal highs” all over the world.

A blanket ban was put on legal highs in the UK earlier this year with anyone who is found with "psychoactive substances" at risk of seven years of prison.

However, with new legal highs being discovered, not only is this law hard to enforce, but it risks driving the drugs underground.

This graph by Statista, using GDS analysis of 100,000 in 50 countries, outlines the places where legal highs are the most popular:

Some 11.6 per cent of the UK population has purchased some form of mind-altering substance in the last 12 months, closely followed by the US.

Italy, Spain and Germany score the lowest for legal high purchases, with 1.3, 3.4 and 3.6 per cent of the population buying them in the last year respectively.

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