Users say synthetic cocaine White Bull is stronger than heroin and causes psychosis, violence and depression.

Ben and girlfriend Liz, in their mid-30s, heard about a legal drug called White Bull from friends.

They bought it from Erotic Nights in High Street about four months ago.

The pair, who haven’t given their real names, were landscapers and were told the drug would be undetectable in workplace drug testing.

Ben, a long-term drug user, heated it up and injected it straight into his veins.

“It was a bigger rush than any other drug I’ve had,” he said.

Liz, who said she was not a drug user, followed her boyfriend’s lead.

“It was orgasmic, literally, and I stayed in that condition for days,” she said.

Injecting is an extreme and more dangerous method of getting the fine powder into one’s system.

More commonly, users rub it on their gums, or pour it into a drink.

Users on “legal high” online forums talk about how White Bull gives them energy and a “hell of a good time”, while others say it sparked anxiety and paranoia.

Wodonga father Daniel, also not his real name, tried White Bull once.

“I couldn’t sleep until the next day, I was a zombie,” he said.

“It’s not something I’d think about doing again.”

His brother-in-law Simon didn’t make the same choice.

Simon is brother to Daniel’s de facto partner Jess.

The couple said Simon became more addicted to White Bull than the ice or amphetamine they knew he had previously taken.

“This is the worst we’ve seen him. This is worse than the stuff off the street,” Jess said.

“It’s shocked me you can buy it from a shop.”

For Ben and Liz, it was a frenzied four-month spiral that mirrored heroin, ice or amphetamine addiction.

They went from using the drug on the weekends, to twice a week and then to a gram each daily, consisting of two to three hits a day.

They lost their jobs, then their home with rent money used to pay for a $600-a-day habit, and Liz began experiencing her first psychotic episodes.

She thought there were 100 people in their home and was convinced Ben was planning to kill her.

Ben became violent with verbal outbursts and throwing furniture.

Their depression spiralled and they began planning their deaths.

“We decided to stop because I was to the point of suicide,” Liz said.

She said she went to Gateway Health, saw a doctor, was put on anti-psychosis medicine and she is now on a waiting list for a detox program.

Ben also stopped using the drug and is now seeing a counsellor.

He is hoping their move to a rural property will give them the space they need to get clean.

Ben said he never thought he would become addicted to a drug sold to him over the counter and one he thought was legal.

“I want it banned. Pure and simple,” he said.

Daniel and Jess said they, too, want it banned, and are also nervously waiting to see if Simon, in the midst of severe bouts of depression, will survive.