The UK should follow New Zealand's lead on new drugs. But it will need courage to do so.
Just down the road from my house are shops that demonstrate the absurdity of our drug laws. The shelves are filled with paraphernalia such as pipes and bongs used for smoking cannabis, alongside the scales and "stench-proof" plastic bags popular with dealers. Behind the counter are sachets offering luridly packaged packets of Amsterdam Gold, Herbal Bush and Mayan Dream.
These are among 70-odd synthetic versions of cannabis to have cropped up in recent years. They are significantly more dangerous than natural cannabis, stronger and with far higher rates of hospitalisation; they have even been linked to the deaths of young users. Aficionados find them less enjoyable, according to research. Yet they typify how the market for legal highs is booming, accelerated by the absurdity of prohibition in a globalised world.
Politicians have learned nothing from the futility of their fight against conventional drugs – an abject failure that pours gold into the pockets of the globe's most vicious gangsters. So MEPs have just backed new rules cutting from two years to 10 months the time taken to assess and ban new psychoactive products. Britain, which has outlawed scores of new substances, believes Brussels is too weak; it wants to wriggle out of the European regulatory regime while a working party examines tougher controls.
