Even by the Mickey Mouse standards of the psychoactive substances bill, yesterday’s Commons debate was remarkable. It is a sign of how meaningless and irrational this legislation is that the minister in charge of it seems to have no idea what he is making illegal or who would be vulnerable to prosecution.
Mike Penning’s performance was the most incompetent in recent Commons memory, perhaps even trumping the moment last year when Chris Grayling seemed to misunderstand the function of his own judicial review reforms and talked himself into watering it down in front of the entire chamber. Last night, the policing minister seemed to contradict a fundamental promise of the bill: that it would only criminalise the import, production and sale of legal highs, but not the possession of them.
“My understanding was that those who would be criminalised by the bill were those who were supplying, marketing, producing and selling,” SNP MP Anne McLaughlin observed, “but twice now the minister has made a comment that suggests that those who purchase these products might also be criminalised.”
Penning’s reply to the Scottish MP was astonishing, because it contradicted everything which had been said about the bill up until yesterday’s debate.
“We do not want to criminalise individuals for possession, but we are going to criminalise the sale and purchase of these substances. That is in the bill and in the spirit of the bill, and is in line with the work that we have done.”
