The authorities are facing a "race with chemists" who are producing potentially dangerous new legal highs on a weekly basis, a Home Office minister has warned.
Norman Baker said the Government was examining the way the problem was dealt with in other countries, including New Zealand where substances are set to be banned unless trials prove they are safe.
The Liberal Democrat minister said the Government was "open-minded" about how to tackle the problem and an expert panel was reviewing the situation.
The number of deaths associated with novel psychoactive substances - otherwise known as legal highs - rose from 10 in 2009 to 68 in 2012, according to data published in the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (NPSAD) report, compiled by experts at St George's, University of London.
Mr Baker told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is a challenging and complicated and difficult issue. We are dealing with a situation where ... there is already a vast array of substances being sold on our streets, in our shops, and that's what we have to try to deal with because many of these are actually quite dangerous."
He added: "At the end of last year I set up an expert review panel with the best brains in the country to look at the best way forward, and that is looking at practices in New Zealand, in Ireland, in Poland, in other countries, to see what's happening elsewhere.
"But let's be quite clear about this: we are in a race against the chemists of new substances being produced almost on a weekly basis in places like China and India."
He said the products were "inaccurately and unhelpfully called legal highs - some of them are actually illegal".
Mr Baker said: "They are certainly not necessarily safe and the word legal implies that they are safe. And people are consuming them and last year I think it was 68 people died, according to coroners' reports, from the ingestion of these substances.
"So we have to come up with a solution which minimises harm. We are open-minded about what that solution is."
Mr Baker's comments came as a new trade association was established for shops selling the substances.
The Most Used Drugs In 2014 (According To The Global Drug Survey)
10. Magic Mushrooms (10.6 %)(01 of10)
Open Image ModalMushrooms for sale are displayed in the smartshop Innerspace in Amsterdam 18 October 2007. (MAARTJE BLIJDENSTEIN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
9. Amphetamines (11.7 %)(02 of10)
Open Image ModalA variety of crystal meth equipment that were confiscated as part of Operation Slab at the North Shore Policing Centre on August 19, 2010 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
8. Electronic Cigarettes (12.3 %)(03 of10)
Open Image ModalIn this photo illustration a woman holds an e-cigarette on April 2, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
7. Cocaine (16.4 %)(04 of10)
Open Image ModalIn this Jan. 26, 2014 photo, a bag of cocaine that was found in the baggage of Liz Rabines, from Spain, sits on a scale at the anti-narcotics police station inside the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) (credit:AP)
6. Shisha Tobacco (18.5 %)(05 of10)
Open Image ModalAn Egyptian man smokes a water pipe, known locally as Shisha, in central Cairo on December 15, 2012. (MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
5. MDMA (23.4 %)(06 of10)
Open Image ModalA mock 'ecstasy' lab for teaching purposes at the new National Clandestine Laboratory Training and Research Facility December 5, 2008 at the DEA Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia. (TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
4. Caffeinated Energy Drinks (45.9 %)(07 of10)
Open Image ModalIn this photo taken Wednesday Sept. 28, 2011, a student's can of Red Bull energy drink is seen on a table at the student union building at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer) (credit:AP)
3. Cannabis (48.2 %)(08 of10)
Open Image ModalThis Feb. 1, 2011 file photo shows medical marijuana clone plants at a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) (credit:AP)
2. Tobacco (56.7 %)(09 of10)
Open Image ModalIn front of the backdrop of the barn in which the burley will be stored, a group of farm workers makes their way across a tobacco field hoeing weeds out of the rows in the early morning Monday, July 11, 2011, near Sparta, Ky. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke) (credit:AP)
1. Alcohol (90.8 %)(10 of10)
Open Image ModalIn this Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, bottles of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, line the shelves of a liquor outlet, in Montpelier, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File) (credit:AP)