A CAMPAIGN to outlaw life-threatening legal highs has recorded a first victory after a government minister pledged to take a fresh look at changing the law.
Drugs minister Jeremy Browne made the promise in response to Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock’s amendment to the anti-social behaviour, crime and policing bill.
The Evening Mail’s Ban Them Now campaign is calling for so-called legal highs to be outlawed.
Mr Woodcock said he wanted to make it easier to bring prosecutions against suppliers who tried to get round the law by labelling substances known as legal highs as plant food or bath salts.Rotherham Labour MP Sarah Champion helped put forward the plan and was supported by shadow home minister David Hanson.
Ms Champion said: “Legal highs are a problem that go far beyond Barrow and Rotherham. “Use of these substances doesn’t just cause short-term health problems, or damage prospects in education and employment. “In increasing numbers, they are leading to deaths.’’
Mr Browne said he was “sympathetic” to the proposals and the government had an “open mind on how to make improvements to policy in this area” but asked for more time to consider the plan before a change in the law. Mr Woodcock said: “It’s great to get a promise from the minister to consider our plan to tackle the scourge of legal highs and listen to further representations on the issue. “We know legal highs are destroying lives in Barrow and across the country – the number of deaths from these substances rose four-fold between 2007 and 2011. The minister said our plan to give police more powers was a big change in approach, but the status quo isn’t working and young people are dying so we must keep up the pressure.”
Mr Browne said that a government review of its policy on legal highs would be published by the end of the year.
lIf you’d like to support our campaign, sign the petition by visiting
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52459.
