UK - Ministers look at new solution to legal highs

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edgarshade

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Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Thursday 12 December 2013

With reader comments

Ministers are considering whether to give up on banning new psychoactive drugs known as "legal highs" and instead regulate the booming trade in the substances which are emerging on the market at the rate of more than one a week. A short review is to be undertaken by the Home Office to see if it possible to rethink the approach, which has been described as "panic and then permanently ban", although legal highs such as Benzo Fury and NBOMe were connected with 52 deaths in Britain in 2012.

Options to be considered by the four-month inquiry will include looking at the New Zealand regime of regulating the manufacture and sale of "low risk" psychoactive substances. Manufacturers pay for clinical trials of their products before they can go on sale to adults over 18. Ministers are expected to stop short of adopting the New Zealand approach but will consider the merits of regulating rather than criminalising the new drugs. Under the existing 12-month banning orders, possession of the legal highs for personal use actually remains legal although there are draconian penalties for importing and supplying.
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The review is to be accompanied by new guidance to local authorities on enforcing trading standards legislation against shops selling the new psychoactive substances.

Danny Kushlik, of the drug campaign, Transform, said they were delighted an evidence-based review was to take place: "Finally sense is prevailing as the prohibition based-system succumbs to the overwhelming deluge of new powerfully psychoactive drugs of literally infinite variety. The authorities are left chasing shadows, as the prohibition itself acts as the catalyst to develop new drugs, with each new chemical variation filling the vacuum created by the ban on the last drug to appear on the market."

He said the New Zealand example of a legal regulatory regime of less dangerous products needed to be explored: "It is to the great credit of the Home Office that it is prepared to look beyond prohibition, and toward alternatives that will provide basic health and safety for otherwise vulnerable users,."said Kushlik
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More...
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/12/ministers-new-solution-legal-highs

Also the Daily Mail version...
With reader comments
Crackdown on legal highs could force suppliers to prove their substances are safe
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Legal high producers could be forced to prove their drugs are safe under a government clampdown to prevent more deaths linked to dangerous substances. Police and ministers are constantly playing catch-up with the creators of legal highs, who tweak the chemical make-up of banned substances to get around the law.
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More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...hs-force-suppliers-prove-substances-safe.html
 
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Ministers are expected to stop short of adopting the New Zealand approach...
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Then it will just be more total and far-reaching prohibition. I think Danny Kushlik is being a tad overoptimistic here.
 
I hope they can figure this research chemical stuff out because they know they can't stop it.. there coming out with a new rc every week
 
edgarshade said:
Then it will just be more total and far-reaching prohibition. I think Danny Kushlik is being a tad overoptimistic here.
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I agree. I think the Daily Mail version is a closer fit for government thinking. And the way this was presented on BBC radio this morning certainly left no room for optimism.
 
Pity, analogue laws in the US have certainly done little to combat RC's & nothing to inhibit access to drugs of any sort by young people. Adopting something similar here seems kinda pointless. The aproach in NZ is the way to go, but I'll be very pleased & very impressed if British drugs law followed suit.
 
Ministers are expected to stop short of adopting the New Zealand approach
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err, could anybody tell me exactly what this 'NZ approach' is? Is there actually a place on this planet that's *openly* tolerant (not just decrim'd)?
 
Pity, analogue laws in the US have certainly done little to combat RC's & nothing to inhibit access to drugs of any sort by young people.
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The laws here in NSW have stopped nearly all RC's being sold in shops. Things like that fake speed and cocaine and whatever the fuck (which apparently often contained things like mdpv) have all but disappeared, with police doing raids on shops and if they are caught selling them they can get huge fines. Sure there may be places to obtain such products online, but I dont think the majority of people know where to go to obtain them, it was much easier for people to just pop into the local sex shop or tobacconist and buy it over the counter, with some newspaper articles saying there were ques of people waiting for the shops to open in the mornings so they could buy more packets of whatever they were after (before the bans were introduced).
 
if i'm understanding that, the 'nz approach' requires clinical trials/etc, so, in practical terms, it'd really change nothing. PPL like nichols (MAPS and their work to get mdma FDA approval for PTSD) are an example of how that'd go in practice, which is something that's got little bearing on the practical "spice/salts" markets; am I getting the gist of it?
 
IIRC there was a list of products being granted licenses in NZ. It's happening! I wish I could find the list now to post here.
 
StoneHappyMonday said:
We must have different definitions of the word decent.

Nice to see NZ approves of Anarchy though. ;)
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Well considering that they could just ban everything like everyone else did, I'd say that its decent. :p

If the US actually enforced the analog act, pretty much nothing would be legal here.

NZ has a step in the right direction that hopefully will be the start of a revolution.
 
Still shits me though because crap like (S)-N-(1-amino-3, 3dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-1-(5-fluoropentyl-1H-indole-3-caboxamide only exists because plain, harmless old weed is still illegal - lunacy.
 
It's reassuring to see a bit of sanity assert itself. The reason these highs are so scary is because so little is known about them; why not make the effort to actually find out what's safe and what isn't? Let's face it: they could close down the entire RC industry with impunity...but there will still be a demand for drugs, and it's gonna be the street dealer who profits from that demand, and that money can't be taxed, unlike a regulated industry.
 
Si Ingwe said:
Pity, analogue laws in the US have certainly done little to combat RC's & nothing to inhibit access to drugs of any sort by young people. Adopting something similar here seems kinda pointless. The aproach in NZ is the way to go, but I'll be very pleased & very impressed if British drugs law followed suit.
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There are no proper drugs being sold legally in stores yet, I can't even get salvia from the store anymore even though its still legal to possess
 
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