POLICE in the North-East have said an operation to crack down on legal highs is showing early signs of success.

For the past two weeks, a dedicated team of officers in the west end and city centre areas of Newcastle have been working to disrupt the supply of the recreational drugs.

Officers are getting intelligence direct from users who say it is harder than ever before to buy legal highs in the city, with a number of their usual suppliers refusing to sell them because of the increased activity by police.

Several addresses have been raided and a large amount of legal highs, which are suspected to contain controlled substances, were seized by police.

These are now being tested and enquiries are ongoing to see if any offences have been committed.

Officers have also been working with health workers and professionals, local authority staff and other partners to share health warnings and safety messages about the dangers of so called 'legal highs' to people living in Newcastle.

Superintendent Richard Jackson said: “We've had a really positive reaction from the public so far about the work that we are doing to tackle legal highs. The harm they are causing is felt most in our communities in the city centre and in the west end and we'll continue to do all we can to put a stop to it.

“The intelligence that we're getting back from the legal high users is also really positive.

“They're telling us that it's becoming more and more difficult for them to find people willing to sell the substances to them because they know the police are out and looking to target them. And this is the case, we are.”