THE father of an Oxford teenager who suffered a mental breakdown after taking ‘legal highs’ has warned of the dangers of the so-called safe alternatives to street drugs.

Dean Cox, 19, began taking the pills regularly three years ago but soon needed hospital treatment after suffering drug-induced psychosis.

Now his father Gerald Cox, 51, from Rose Hill, feels his son has been abandoned by mental health services, which he claims do not understand his son’s needs and are struggling to cope with the problems associated with abuse of such substances.

His claims come amid a national debate on whether to make the drug mephedrone – which is sold online as plant fertiliser – illegal after it was linked to the deaths of five people.

Dean did not take mephedrone, but he was first taken into the Warneford Hospital in Oxford in 2007, after taking other substances, which are sold for as little as £5 on the Internet. His father had become concerned about Dean’s erratic behaviour and was worried he might be a danger to himself.

He said: “Before my son took the legal highs, he was a nervous child but really sensible. He was just like you and me.

“But now I’m worried things are getting on top of him and I’m worried what he might do to himself.

“I do blame Dean for messing around with them in the first place but if something is legal, why wouldn’t kids try it?”

Martin Barnes, the chief executive of drugs education charity DrugScope, said people needed to research legal highs carefully.

He said: “It’s vital for people to know that just because a substance is currently legal doesn’t make it in any way safe.”

After treatment at the hospital, Dean was referred to the Knowl, semi-independent accommodation in Stert Street, Abingdon, six months ago.

His father has become increasingly worried about his son’s behaviour and the way in which his care is being handled after an incident in which Dean walked out of the Knowl during the night and walked to Oxford along the A34.

Mr Cox said: “I feel like I’m doing all their work for them.

“I have tried and tried to get Dean some more help and support, but I feel like we’re being pushed from one person to another and no-one has got the time to help us.”

Dean added: “All I want in life is a bricklaying job.

“I want to get a piece of land and build my house on it so I never have to go into one of those places again.

“If I put myself into the mind of someone who was about to take legal highs I would just say don’t. You don’t know what they can do.”

Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust said it could not discuss individual patients’ cases. But a spokesman said: “We would assist any patient who wasn’t happy where they were living to explore any options they may have.”

A spokesman for 2CARE, the charity which runs the Knowl, confirmed it had received a complaint from Mr Cox and said it was taking it “very seriously”.