Under this legislation, the highest penalty for selling or purchasing these products—particularly for selling—will be seven years, which is not a light sentence. It indicates the severity of the offence. We do not want to criminalise a whole group of people who have, for many years, been buying a product that was perfectly legal, but there are some real changes that we need to make on behalf of our constituents, which is why we are all in this place. For once, we should get ahead of the drug dealers and chemists. Huge amounts of money are involved not only within the paramilitaries but within organised crime. By having a blanket ban, there are real concerns that we will be banning things that we all enjoy. I am talking about caffeine—
Psychoactive Substances Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
Mike Penning
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 19 October 2015.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Psychoactive Substances Bill [Lords].
About this proceeding contribution
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2015-16Chamber / Committee
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2015-10-20 16:46:24 +0100
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