A DOG walker was shocked to find gas canisters used for drug use which had been discarded in the park near his house.

The 61-year-old, who asked not to be named, often walks his dog around the park, off of Langley Place, Billericay, and often encounters rubbish left in the bushes, but this is the first time he has discovered drugs paraphernalia.

However, recently he was horrified to find 18 gas canisters, often filled with the now illegal laughing gas – a recreational drug which is also known as “hippy crack”.

The retired resident of the Langley Place area said: “Kids often go down there so it is very disturbing to find this sort of thing as youngsters could just as easily discover it.

“I usually pick up the rubbish that I find.

“There are often bags of empty beer bottles and cans chucked in the bushes.

“It is such a shame because the rubbish makes the place look so untidy.

“Then I found the canisters that were left lying around and I couldn’t believe it.

“There were 18 of them just lying there.

“It is sad really if kids are getting their kicks off that.

“It’s not a good thing.

 “But sadly this sort of thing is a sign of the times we are now living in.”

He added he was concerned about the drug paraphernalia being left out in the open as young children often play in the open space and people often take their dogs there to walk them.

He warned that there could have been a different story if a dog or a child had come across the cannisters if any of the gas was left.

A blanket ban on so-called legal highs has come into force in the UK since May 26.

This means that the production, distribution, sale and supply of “new psychoactive substances” is now illegal.

The chemicals, sold under names such as spice and black mamba, are designed to give users the same effect as drugs like cannabis and cocaine.

Last year legal highs were linked to more than 100 deaths in the UK and a rise in violent assaults in prison, which led to them being outlawed.