Experts call for ban on new legal high and warning over inhaling legal gases Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs calls for ban on legal high Annihilation, which has put nine users in hosiptal in the last three months The substance can cause aggression, self-harm and unconsciousness ACMD also wants public warned over dangers of inhaling helium and nitrous oxide The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) says it will recommend the product is put on a list of controlled substances. The drug is marketed as a "herbal incense." Last week Scottish police warned against Annihilation use, saying it had left at least nine people in hospital over the last three months. ACMD chair Professor Les Iversen told a meeting that the public body was "ahead of the game" with regards to Annihilation. It had determined that it was made from a synthetic form of cannabis. He said: "Annihilation is a relatively new substance and product and the evidence for its prevalence and harms is still very preliminary. However, there have been reports, particularly from Glasgow, of young people reacting very unfavourably to this product, becoming severely agitated and over-stimulated. Prof Iversen described Annihilation as "particularly potent" and said its arrival showed just how fast-moving the legal high market had become in recent years. It can cause a number of adverse health effects including paranoia, aggression, increased heart rate, unconsciousness, self-harming and numbness in the legs leading users to collapse. The ACMD has also warned that there is an increasing need to educate the public over "potentially lethal" inhalation of gases such as helium and nitrous oxide. Helium inhalation caused two deaths in 2007 but over the last year has been responsible for 42 fatalities, the meeting in central London heard. "Laughing gas" nitrous oxide, which is legal and widely available but requires a medical licence to be dispensed, is used as an anaesthetic gas and in the production of whipped cream. Asked about how the gas was being consumed for recreational purposes, Prof Iversen said: "It is quite easy to open a canister and fill a balloon - for example, at Glastonbury music festival a couple of years ago there were lots of yellow balloons containing nitrous oxide which were being sold and inhaled from the balloons." The Government will also be advised to provide aluminium foil to heroin users to encourage them to smoke rather than inject the drug. This would reduce the transmission of viral and bacterial disease and reduce the burden on the NHS related to recreational drug injection, Prof Iversen added. The ACMD is a non-departmental public body which advises ministers on how to deal with the misuse of drugs. Before making regulations related to drugs, the Home Secretary is obliged by law to consult on them.