Writing exclusively for the Sunday People, Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker says he will review the current drug laws.
I’m determined to clamp down on the reckless trade in so-called ‘legal highs’ which have tragically claimed the lives of too many young people. We are already cracking down on the traders. The police are working hard to enforce the rules, and in one recent week 73 warrants were executed, 44 arrests made and seizures included thousands of pounds of cash and a firearm. But we can’t hope to stamp out this practice by simply leaving it to the police.
These drugs are being touted as legal alternatives to ecstasy or cannabis but manufacturers are trying to avoid existing laws by tweaking the chemical composition, or marketing them as “plant food” or “bath salts”. Users have no idea what they contain, and what impact these drugs will have on their health. People can’t be totally sure these drugs are legal, and our enforcement operations have found illegal drugs are being sold as legal. I want to take action to ensure we protect the public from dodgy drug manufacturers.
But rather than simply rushing forward with legislation, we’ve decided to do the sensible thing, and look at the problem with health experts, the police, local councils, and others. There are different approaches to combating “legal highs” across the world.
In Britain we use temporary bans to give independent experts time to tell us whether new substances should be permanently banned. New Zealand has chosen to regulate the market and give licences to those “legal highs” which are low risk, whereas the US ban drugs which have similar chemical composition. The review will look at the range of action we might take and I’m open-minded about its conclusions.
I want to raise public awareness - and I congratulate the Sunday People on the good work it has done in this area. People need to know what the rules are. They need to know that if they buy something, then they won’t wake up in Accident and Emergency. And I want to make sure young people can’t walk into a shop and buy drugs which can be stronger and more dangerous than many illegal drugs. That has to end.
