While expressing disappointment over the increased trend to smoke a strange substance popularly named as “Black Mamba” in the region, the Associate Director of Public Health, Dr. Nigel Calvert warned that it can be a lethal form of “legal high”.

The officer made the statement after the hospitalization of around seven teenagers who have reported symptoms of nauseous along with elevated heart beat after smoking the recently identified legal drug.

In addition, the officer claimed that the compound is not illegal till the time and therefore, it is easily accessible to a number of youngsters who are not aware of its consequences and can cast drastic effect on consumer’s health.

Dr. Nigel Calvert had also raised concerns on the lack of strict laws in order to regulate the circulation of these substances in the region. The different doses are likely to impart different impacts. “Both legal highs and illegal drugs are totally unregulated and this means that they can have untold effects on people’s health which might be instant or develop later in life”, added Dr. Calvert.

The lethal substance is believed to retrieve its name from a poisonous African snake and believed to be slightly less addictive compared to marijuana with the effects of a shrub damiana that grows in Mexico. Experts have strictly suggested people to not blend it with anything, not even alcohol.

On the other hand, the Sergeant Mark Rawlinson of Cumbria Police has also hailed people to make a distance from the dangerous substance and warned that they should not attempt to try it just because it is not banned.

During last year, authorities imposed a ban on the legal high Mephedrone, or Miaow-Miaow, consequent to a frightening incident of around 26 deaths due to the substance.