(29 May 2015, 10:46 pm)MurdnunoC wrote Pointless exercise. While I believe the danger posed by 'legal highs' should be addressed, simply criminalising their use is not the answer. The production of these substances will become even more clandestine and will lead to more deaths as users take more risks to to obtain them. As always, users/addicts will suffer the consequences ending up with criminal records while those at the top of the chain continue to produce and sell their product with little fear of being caught. There's also the fact that chemists will continue to make legal highs by slightly altering the synthetic process. It's difficult to legislate against drugs yet to be made - it's all a complete mess if you ask me.
People who want to get high will always find a way of doing so and, in turn, there will always be people willing to fulfil their needs. Demand can be reduced but never eradicated.
I may have got the wrong end of the stick, but it looks like they're trying to rewrite the misuse of drugs act to accommodate this? The misuse of drugs act appears to ban substances by their chemical compound, so by changing the compound slightly, it'd potentially become legal again. I read the article as them banning anything that is a high, but then adding excludes for the likes of alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.
The problem with a complete ban is that the people determined to have them will find alternatives. There's not too much difference in the price between them and cheap (fake) ecstasy. This for example as a legal high replacement could present a much bigger problem.