LABOUR’S manifesto pledged to get tough with so–called legal highs, with Mr Miliband saying: “We will ban the sale and distribution of dangerous psychoactive substances.”

The party’s drugs pledge follows the Daily Echo’s Say No to Legal Highs campaign, which was launched after the deaths of young people in Hampshire who took the substances.

Saints fan Adam Hunt, 18, from Southampton died after being left in a coma having experimented with AMT, a substance he bought from the internet.

Trainee doctor Doug Ferguson, 19, from Chandler’s Ford, died after taking the drug in June last year after being taken ill at a house in Heathfield Road.

And married father William Nutter, 32, from Andover, died after consuming AMT the following month.

Adam’s parents called on politicians of all parties to clamp down on the substances, and local community leaders and Hampshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Hayes, and Chief Constable have all backed the Daily Echo’s campaign.

Labour’s manifesto makes no mention of criminal penalties for drug-taking, saying instead: “We will ensure drug treatment services focus on the root causes of addiction.”