Police and councils set to win new 'legal highs' enforcement powers

The police and local authorities will have new enforcement powers to tackle ‘legal highs’ from later this month (26 May), when the Psychoactive Substances Act comes into force.

The Home Office highlighted how the Act would:

• make it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, possess on custodial premises, import or export psychoactive substances; “that is, any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect”. The maximum sentence will be 7 years’ imprisonment. For possessing a psychoactive substance in a custodial institution, it will be up to 2 years in prison;
• include provision for civil sanctions: prohibition notices, premises notices, prohibition orders and premises orders (breach of the two orders will be a criminal offence, with up to 2 years in prison for those who fail to comply. These would “enable the police and local authorities to adopt a graded response to the supply of psychoactive substances in appropriate cases”;
• provide powers to stop and search persons, vehicles and vessels, enter and search premises in accordance with a warrant, and to seize and destroy psychoactive substances;
• exclude legitimate substances, such as food, alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, caffeine and medical products from the scope of the offence, as well as controlled drugs, which continue to be regulated by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971;
• exempt healthcare activities and approved scientific research from the offences under the Act “on the basis that persons engaged in such activities have a legitimate need to use psychoactive substances in their work”.

The Home Office said ‘legal highs’ had been linked to the deaths of 144 people in the UK in 2014 alone.

Karen Bradley, Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime, said: “Psychoactive substances shatter lives and we owe it to all those who have lost loved ones to do everything we can to eradicate this abhorrent trade.

“This Act will bring to an end the open sale on our high streets of these potentially harmful drugs and deliver new powers for law enforcement to tackle this issue at every level in communities, at our borders, on UK websites and in our prisons.

“The message is clear – so-called ‘legal highs’ are not safe. This act will ban their sale and ensure unscrupulous traders who profit from them face up to 7 years in prison.”

The Government has previously banned more than 500 potentially dangerous drugs since 2010 under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.