IT鈥橲 official. And the UK ban on 鈥渓egal highs鈥�, to begin in April, is one of the stupidest, most dangerous and unscientific pieces of drugs legislation ever conceived.
Watching MPs debate the Psychoactive Substances Bill last week, it was clear most didn鈥檛 have a clue. They misunderstood medical evidence, mispronounced drug names, and generally floundered. It would have been funny except lives and liberty are on the line.
The law is an attempt to clamp down on substances that mimic drugs like cannabis and ecstasy. It stems from hysteria a few years ago over mephedrone, linked with some deaths. It was banned, but new legal highs were easily cooked up, to be sold online and in head shops.
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So 鈥渂an everything that gets you high鈥� was the government鈥檚 reaction 鈥� and this bill is the result. As history tells us, prohibition creates a market for criminals, who are less inclined to ensure products are genuine and unadulterated, or to refuse sales to minors.
鈥淪ave for a few voices of reason the cross-party line prevailed: drugs are evil and dangerous鈥�
Other generally harmless substances will also be ensnared. For if this bill has highlighted anything, it is the ubiquity of our desire to tweak brain chemistry in satisfying ways. Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are all exempted.
Various other exemptions were proposed and rejected as stuffily conventional MPs found themselves debating the merits of 鈥減oppers鈥� 鈥� drugs popular with gay men. One MP confessed she thought poppers meant those small tubs of streamers fired into the air at parties. Another spoke up for 鈥渟mart drugs鈥� used by some students.
Save for a few voices of reason, the cross-party line prevailed: drugs are evil and dangerous and please, think of the children!
No matter that the more dangerous something is, the less we want crime gangs involved. Labour MP Paul Flynn pointed to Ireland, which saw a similar ban in 2010. Its head shops shut, yet a survey found teens using the highs rose from 16 to 22 per cent.
Before the debate, Flynn gave me his view that the MPs in charge of this bill were chosen not for scientific literacy but likely compliance with government whips. Sure enough, the bill passed. 鈥淭his is politicians behaving at their worst,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he future will condemn them.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎 new low鈥�