TENS of thousands of Hampshire music fans are being warned of the fatal consequences of taking deadly drugs at festivals.

Psychoactive Substances – formerly known as legal highs – are responsible for the deaths of scores of young people across Britain, including those in the county.

Now, ahead of one of the biggest festival weekends of the year, youth ambassadors will be spreading the word to masses of revellers.

It comes after the launch of tough new laws criminalising the sale of lethal drugs on the high street and online.

The Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) signalled a victory for the Daily Echo’s Say No to Legal Highs campaign, launched three years ago, calling for tougher laws, vendors and sellers to be held to account and tighter controls to stop youngsters buying the dangerous substances over the counter.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Youth Commission also launched its ‘Lethal Highs’ awareness campaign in October last year to inform young people, parents and those working with youngsters, of the dangers and how the law has changed.

This weekend members will visit Victorious Festival in Portsmouth to spread their message.

It comes two weeks after ambassadors visited BoomTown Fair near Winchester to reach out to revellers.

The PSA makes it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, possess on custodial premises, import or export psychoactive substances. The maximum sentence is seven years’ imprisonment.

It also aims to ensure a watertight ban by stopping manufacturers circumventing the system by making tiny changes to the composition of the drugs to get around previous bans.

Patrick Allen, Youth Commission member from the New Forest, said: “By spreading knowledge of these risks we hope to allow young people to make an informed decision and prevent harm. We hope to get through to young people that in the legal highs game eventually everyone loses.”

Our campaign came after a number of deaths of young people in Hampshire including schoolboy Adam Hunt, from Millbrook, who died in hospital in August 2013 – five days after falling seriously ill after taking AMT and etizolam.

Trainee doctor Doug Ferguson, 19, from Chandler’s Ford, died after taking AMT in June 2012 and married father William Nutter, 32, from Andover, died after consuming AMT the following month.

And in April last year, bereaved mum Vivian Ryan called for the banning of legal highs which she believes killed her son Clint Broomfield, of Radstock Road in Woolston.