A CAMPAIGNER trying to get legal highs banned says the problem has not gone away in Taunton despite the town being at the forefront in the war against the drugs.

Musgrove Park Hospital is still having to treat people suffering the ill effects of legal highs on a weekly basis.

Police forced the closure of the Hush shop, which supplied the drugs in Bridge Street, following almost daily incidences of anti-social behaviour associated with the store.

And Taunton Deane Council has barred the use of mind-altering substances in several areas around the town centre.

Nick Smith, of South West Action Group, said fewer young people were experimenting with the substances, but young adults were travelling to Bridgwater to buy their supplies or ordering over the internet.

Mr Smith added: “The anti-social behaviour we used to see outside Hush seems to have gone away since it closed.

“But users are injecting themselves with legal highs in public toilets, particularly in Paul Street and Victoria Park and they’re being used on some of the housing estates.

“It’s good that fewer young people are taking legal highs, but there needs to be more education – I recently spoke to a groups of students and some of them were unaware of the dangers.

“There also needs to be monitoring of the signs banning legal highs in certain areas of the town and money spent on educating young people.”

A report to Taunton Deane Council said Musgrove was not seeing a decline in the number of people needing treatment after taking legal highs, even though the problem is now “far less visible and intrusive” in the town.

It added: “It appears a network of suppliers has evolved and many users now travel to Bridgwater to purchase legal highs and some buy in bulk to distribute to users on the estates.”

The authority's community safety co-ordinator Scott Weetch said: "It's still a problem. We'd be naive to think that us putting up signs, working with the police to close down the shops has actually solved the problem.

"I think what we've done is potentially move the problem."

The report was discussed at last week’s full council meeting at Deane House, when members voted to monitor the situation.

Home Secretary Theresa May heard how Taunton was tackling legal highs during a visit hosted by the County Gazette shortly before the General Election in May.