Britain's streets 'are flooded with more than 200 illegal highs': Drugs tsar warns his department is struggling to keep up Committee is analysing the new wave of drugs to ban them quickly 200 psychoactive chemicals are currently outside existing regulations Last year legal highs mexxy and black mamba became illegal class B drugs Britain's streets have been flooded with more than 200 dangerous legal highs, the Government's drug tsar has warned. Les Iversen, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs warned he and his colleagues were swamped new substances and struggling to keep up. Among the danger drugs are set of synthetic LSD-style compounds designed to get around existing laws. Prof Iversen warned that the drug was potent in tiny amounts making the overdose risk "clearly immense." Dangerous: A wave of drugs made out of new compounds are getting around existing laws as the authorities struggle to keep up Prof Iversen said the council, which advises ministers on what the harmful effects of drugs are and what class they should be put in, considered legal highs an important priority. The issue was causing him a "great deal of caution and worry," he said. He has set up a committee of experts to address the wave of new compounds so they can be analysed and banned promptly. He said: "Novel psychoactive chemicals are made in China one week and shipped here for human consumption next week without any safety data accompanying it. To me that's an appalling situation. Sooner or later we will get unexpected and serious harm emerging with one of these compounds and then we will blame ourselves for allowing them to be sold without the usual safety data. That's why I think this is a serious problem, it's not just a nice set of party drugs that we can let people get on with, it's a set of chemicals that are potentially very dangerous. Off the radar: Ministers have introduced a new banning order to keep up with the new drugs, allowing new compounds to be made illegal within weeks The committee is set to look at the new LSD-style substance and a new man-made amphetamine called Benzo Fury. Prof Iversen said: "This has become a high priority agenda item for the ACMD and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future as the new compounds continue to emerge. The European Monitoring Centre logged in 60 new compounds last year and there's been a similar rate this year. That's one a week. They list some 200 different psychoactive chemicals that lie outside the legal scope of our existing regulations. Lethal: Hester Stewart died after taking GBL Our problem is to know how many of these are really being used in this country and how harmful are they and this is difficult because we can't possibly address all classes of compounds at once, unless we and the Government can think of cleverer ways of regulating. Last year, two legal highs - mexxy and black mamba - were made illegal class B drugs. Ministers have also introduced a new banning order which allows new compounds to be made illegal within weeks. But the power has been used only once and outlaws dealing. Possession of such drugs is not unlawful, however. Campaigner Maryon Stewart, whose daughter Hester died after taking GBL, said ministers weren't doing enough to educate children and young people about the dangers of legal highs. A survey by her Angelus Foundation found two thirds of 14-18 year-olds think legal highs are safe and fun, despite a string of deaths and growing evidence of dangers to health. She said: "Ministers need to take urgent action and heed this warning. I cannot understand why they can leave kids so vulnerable and not raise awareness of the dangers of these substances. They will have blood on their hands if they don't take any action.