Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2013
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Alan Travis

DON'T TRY TO BAN ALL 'LEGAL HIGHS', SAYS CROSS-PARTY PEERS' GROUP

The least harmful new "legal highs" should be made readily available
for sale under strictly regulated conditions rather than being
immediately banned as happens now, according to a cross-party group of
peers.

Senior police officers told the inquiry into the new psychoactive
synthetic drugs, which are appearing in Britain at the rate of more
than one a week, that the existing criminal sanctions for drug users
are doing nothing to reduce their use.

Tim Hollis, the chief constable who chairs the Association of Chief
Police Officers drugs committee, said the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act was
not well positioned to deal with the more complex drugs scene which
now exists in Britain.

"The solution to the particular challenges of legal highs does not lie
in adding inexorably to the list of illicit substances," said Hollis.
The police say the speed at which new substances are being produced
and marketed means existing laws are being overtaken. They say that
party invitations circulating on smartphones now include a weblink to
a supplier of legal highs.

The report, published today by the House of Lords all-party
parliamentary group on drug policy reform, chaired by the crossbench
peer Lady Meacher, says it would be far more effective to adopt an
initiative from in New Zealand and ask trading standards officers to
test and regulate the supply of low-risk legal highs.

"Under these controls suppliers would, as is planned in New Zealand,
be limited to certain outlets and required to label their product with
a clear description of its contents, its risks and the maximum
advisable dose. The supplier would also be responsible for assuring
that their product causes only limited harms," says the report, adding
that the system would encourage young people to avoid the unknown and
therefore more dangerous alternatives. Sales to minors and advertising
would be banned.

The inquiry group, which includes Conservatives Lord Mancroft and Lord
Norton and crossbenchers Lady Stern and Lord Cobbold, says the current
system of 12-month temporary banning orders to control each new legal
high while the government's drug experts establish how dangerous it is
does little to protect users.

The first legal highs to be banned in Britain were mephedrone, known
as miaow miaow and methoxetamine, known as mexxy, which largely
imitate the effects of cannabis. They usually come in the form of 1kg
packets of white powder produced most often in China and India and
sold through online head shops.

Meacher said the rapid emergence of legal highs demonstrated the need
to reform UK drug policy: "The Misuse of Drugs Act is
counterproductive in attempting to reduce drug addiction and other
drug harms to young people." 
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