Council leaders call for action on 'legal highs' after failed prosecution

Leaders of Cheshire West and Chester Council have urged the Home Secretary to change the law so that local authorities can protect vulnerable young people from ‘legal highs’.

The call from Mike Jones, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester, and Lynn Riley, Executive Member for Community and Environment, follows the failed prosecution of the proprietor of a chain of shops.

With ‘legal highs’ not covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act, Cheshire West and Chester prosecuted Sean Alex Ellman and Salsa Enterprises Ltd under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This followed consultation with the Home Office.

The prosecution was bought after a 17-year-old student was taken to hospital suffering convulsions. The student had taken Gogaine, which had been bought on his behalf, with alcohol.

However, District Judge Knight said she struggled to see how the charge could fit in with CPUTR 2009, the Medicines Act or the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging or Supply) Regulations 2009.

She also said there was no evidence as to what the sachets bought by trading standards actually contained.

Ruling that Ellman had no case to answer, the judge reportedly described the case as “a nightmare for any prosecuting authority”. She also called on Parliament either to ban ‘legal highs’ or restrict their sale under licence.

In a letter to Home Secretary Theresa May, Cllr Jones wrote: “Local authorities would seem to be powerless to prosecute within the existing law, unless taking these substances had resulted in death.”

He asked May to take urgent action to ensure that young people were protected. 

Cllr Jones added: “It beggars belief that we cannot protect our young people from a product bearing a name little different from cocaine; branded ‘harmful’ and ‘not fit for human consumption’, yet knowingly supplied for consumption to young people under the guise of being a ‘research chemical’.”