Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) Order 2012

My Lords, reading about these substances makes me grateful that I was young in the comparatively harmless 1960s. The orders are difficult for the non-scientist, not just in pronunciation. Like the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, I am grateful to the advisory committee. I do not know whether Parliament has ever rejected one of these orders. The noble Lord referred to paragraph 8.1 in the Explanatory Memorandum. The point I took from that was the comment that these substances have not been identified as having any legitimate medical or chemical used beyond potential research use. If legitimate researchers wish to use them for research, is there a route for that to happen? In other words, can research still take place? I have no doubt that we will consider further orders which, to those of us who are not scientists, will look much the same but which, to the scientists, will be about different substances. I doubt that it is ever possible to be fully upstream and ahead of the manufacturers, particularly in the Far East, but I, too, support the order.